One of the best museums I have ever visited is the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Georgia. It’s just outside the gates of Fort Benning (or Fort Moore, depending on who is President at the time), so you don’t need a security clearance to visit. It’s also FREE, although they take donations. I highly recommend it. You don’t have to be a warhawk to appreciate what it means to be a soldier, and there’s a lot of information here on what a soldier’s life has been like in history, as well as what it’s like now.

Right now, the hours are 9AM-5PM from Tuesday through Saturday, 11AM to 5PM on Sundays, and closed on Monday. Plan your visit accordingly.

As you enter the building, the gift shop is on the left. We put that off until the end of our visit. I’d been here before, so we also didn’t buy much. There’s a metal detector to go through for security, as well as an information desk.

I recommend going up the center pathway first. This takes the visitor through the last 100 years of the infantry with a number of excellent mock-ups of what it was like to be a soldier at the time of these battles.

At the end of this is the Fort Benning Gallery, which shows the history of Fort Benning and this area of Georgia and Alabama. Yes, the darker side of history with the southern segregation is talked about here.

After this, it’s back downstairs for a history lesson spanning from the Continental Army to the modern day. Unfortunately, two of the galleries were closed while we were there. The exhibits are well thought out, with life-size dummies illustrating what it was like for soldiers. There are uniforms, armaments, vehicles, and more for each era of combat. Of course, the closer one walks to the modern era, the more objects there are.

There are a couple of food options at the museum, one near the theater on the ground floor, and a second upstairs. The theater shows various documentaries, movies, and stage presentations. Check the schedule for the day you plan to go to see if there’s anything that interests you. If it’s operating, there is also a VR exhibit where you can get the virtual soldier experience.

It’s not just what’s inside the museum that is impressive, but what’s outside too. I wouldn’t go here on a rainy day. Walking the grounds can be just as significant.

The bottom picture is a view out of the window of the Fort Benning Galley of Inouye Field. They hold graduations here, so at times you will be restricted from walking on it. However, there are lots of things to see aside from this field. It starts on the left side of the building as you are facing it. There is a POW-MIA memorial at the parking lot, then Heritage Walk has the flags from every state and territory of the United States represented.

As you walk towards the field, you’ll find the final resting place of the movable Vietnam Memorial Wall, which traveled the country when I was younger. There is also a 9/11 memorial with a piece of steel from the World Trade Center.

Walking around the grandstand, you’ll find tributes to the soldiers who have made up the infantry over the years, including Buffalo Soldiers.

Like Colin Powell, I feel War should be the last resort. You can feel that way and appreciate what the soldiers do, putting their lives on the line to protect the country. This is a remarkable museum that gives the ordinary citizen a better idea of what infantry soldiers have experienced through the years. I wish my father could have visited it while he was alive. As a veteran of World War II, he was always interested in things like this.