A fitting salute to all men and women who served in the US armed forces for the last 200 years.  Monuments and memorials, a flag-circled amphitheatre, 58-foot Cobra helicopter, 75mm field gun, T-3 tank gun, Hawk missile, and memorabilia from wars of the twentieth century. 

Open weekends 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, Pearl Harbor Day.  For additional information an special tours contact Randy Chapin 256-764-4245 or 256-762-1971.

BRIEF HISTORY:

Anson Cooper had a dream, which after seven or eight years of hard work, turned into reality. Cooper's dream was to build a memorial to honor and pay tribute to the men and women of Lauderdale County who fought and died for their country. He took his dream to Rev. Rowe Wren, who was an engineer-design associate at T.V.A. Rev. Wren worked many hours in completing a sketch of the memorial that now stands at Veteran Memorial Park. The sketch was then given to Ebbe E. Kindahl, a native of Sweden, who was a design engineer. Kindahl gladly consented to draw the blueprints and prepare the specifications.

Cooper enlisted the aid of others to help. bring the project to reality, and after two years of preliminaries, the fund raising started in June, 1971. From the beginning, fund raising went very slowly, and the cost of the memorial increased about as fast as the money was raised due to inflation. The initial cost was estimated to be $52,000.00 and now was well over $60,000.00. However, each time the committee seemed to bog down and get discouraged, something or someone came along to give new enthusiasm and inspiration; however, the committee's purpose for the memorial never changed. It was intended only to pay tribute to the men and women who fought and died for this country and to perpetuate their names for history and posterity.

It was also the hope that those who follow after will see it as a symbol of the patriotism of the people of Lauderdale County, Alabama, and of their love of God and Country.  The memorial, which is believed to be unique in Alabama and perhaps the nation, was dedicated on May 30, 1977. The cornerstone truly tells the whole story of the memorial, which was built by "those who care".

Some of the exhibits include:
T-3 (T-78) experimental anti-tank gun.  It fired a 76mm round of ammunition. Being a towed weapon meant it could only be used defensively, and due to a lack of mobility, it could be easily outflanked.  Towed anti-tank artillery disappeared from the U.S. Army's active inventory in 1952.  This gun is one of few of its kind in existence.

75mm Field Gun is a modification of a French gun.  First designed in 1917, the 75mm was the most effective light field gun in WWI.  It was used against infantry, tanks, and other armored targets during WWII.  This gun is 17'3" long and weighs 3400 lbs.  The 75mm's range is 13870 yards and fired at 6 rounds per minute.  The 75mm shell weighed 19 lbs.  There were fixed, high explosive, chemical, smoke and armor-piercing shells produced for this weapon.  The 105mm has now replaced the 75mm gun as the light artillery weapon.

Hamilton-Standard 23E50-505 hydromatic propeller.  The propeller came from a C-47 Gooney Bird.  The C-47's were put into operation in the European and Pacific theaters of WWII as troop and cargo transports.  The C-47 also initiated the Berlin Airlift.  The C-47's were manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company.  Over 10,000 of these aircraft were produced for military service.

Anchor used on the U.S.S. Balao SS-285, a fleet submarine.  The Balao was commissioned in Feb. 1943.  She received 9 battle stars for sinking 7 Japanese ships during her WWII service.  The U.S.S. Balao was decommissioned in June 1963.  She was used as a target and sunk in Sept. 1963.  Her conning tower, which is now on display at the Washington Naval Yard, and this anchor are all that remains of the U.S.S. Balao.

Hawk Missile.  This was the first mobile medium range guided anti-aircraft missile deployed by the U.S. Army in August of 1959.  The Hawk is a surface to air missle powered by a solid propellant rocket motor and controlled in flight by its large tail fins.  The Hawk is 16'-8" long, weighs 1400 lbs. And has a speed of mach 2.5.  The Hawk has a ceiling of 58,000' and carries a 163 lb. blast fragmentation warhead.  The Hawk was deactivated by the U.S. Army in 1994 and was replaced by the Patriot Missile.

M50 Honest John Surface to Surface Rocket. This was the Army's first nuclear-armed surface to surface rocket.  The Honest John was an unguided 762mm artillery rocket, powered by an M6 solid-fuel rocket engine.  The Honest John was developed at Redstone Arsenal in 1950 and first fired at White Sands Missile Range in 1951.  Later versions carried a high explosive warhead instead of the atomic payload.  The Honest John weighed in at 5,800 lbs. and had a range of 25 miles.  Production ended at Douglas Aircraft in
1965, after more than 7,000 rockets had been built.  The Honest John was replaced by the MGM-52 Lance in 1973.