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Arvest

July 26, 2010 by · Comments Off on Arvest 

ArvestArvest, Lawton, Oklahoma (AP) – The Field Artillery Museum continues to win new exhibits thanks to the hard work of its staff and volunteers and some outside help from the Walton Foundation and Arvest Bank.

Part of the Berlin Wall and three dummies representing the uniform currently worn by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, an African Union soldier during the American Civil War and Confederate artillery are new reasons to visit the museum, according with the museum director Gordon Blaker.

The Walton Foundation and Arvest Bank provided funds for four dummies, but the uniform for the room is not ready yet, he said.

Sgt. Dustin Roderigo, a wounded warrior unit assigned to the Fort Sill Warrior Transition, knotted leather sword for the dummy of the Confederation and the entire team assembled for the modern soldier, who comes in answer to museum visitors asked to see what the soldiers of today are placed.

Roderigo, who previously worked at the Battle of the Bulge diorama in the north gallery, is described as “a furrier in training.”

The current team can be seen operating in the south of the central gallery. Rodrigeras said a foreign striker is now leading an advanced combat helmet (ACH) and Council Interceptor armor ballistic plates containing small arms, or “ vulgar”plates to protect the soldier from the shrapnel and shells 9 mm. worn front and back plates are designed to protect the warrior from at least three shots at close range rounds of 7.62 NATO.

Moreover, the soldier has a vest loaded with bags of all their ammunition, a first aid kit, a grenade and personal items you need for your mission. The vest that allows them to take your team to focus on fighting against labor as a gunner, or puts it to go to the offensive mode as an infantryman. One side is kept well clear for carrying an M-16 or M-4 rifle, and shoulder on that side must be clear to the top of the gun stock.

The slot in the front of the helmet is for the rhino mount night vision monocle. Optical changes down so that one eye has night vision and the other has normal vision.

On the back of the soldier is a three-fourths Camelbak connected by a tube to the nozzle, so the soldier can stay hydrated in hot weather.

Knee and elbow pads are to protect against injury when soldiers enter melee. The soldiers often discard the pad to the firing from. This particular soldier will be equipped with an M-4 for urban operations, Roderigo said.

In his right shoulder soldier wears an infrared tape American flags used only in the country. When the aircraft to look through the thermal optical sights, the flag patch registers as a cool place. The helmet has black reflective infrared bands also appear as cool spots, so that the pilots who are looking for friendly forces.

Three sections of the Berlin Wall, about a meter wide and 12 feet tall, can be seen at the opposite end of the central gallery. Blaker said Hall left the snow earlier this year. Harry Shappell Museum volunteers, a metal worker, built a frame for the base, and specialized exhibitions Zane Mohler make the wood and covered in it.

After the end of World War II, Germany and its capital, Berlin, were divided into four occupation zones. Each zone was controlled by one of four partners: the U.S., Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The plan was that after a period of occupation, the area would meet in a new Germany. Soviet leader Josef Stalin soon decided to try to take control of Berlin and, finally, all of Germany.

The growing conflict between the Communists and the Western allies became known as the Cold War. In 1949 the Soviet Union sealed off all land and water routes to Berlin in an attempt to drive U.S. allies, Britain and France in Berlin. The Allies responded by starting the Berlin Airlift to supply the city with food, fuel and needs in their entirety by the aircraft. Over the next year the U.S. forces and British air transport flights 200 000 flew 13,000 tons of supplies to the city. The Soviets were humiliated and reacted by establishing the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. Through the 1950s an increasing number of East Germans fled oppression and poverty of the East, Blaker said.

In August 1961 East Germany closed the border between East and West sectors of Berlin. Construction of a concrete wall began to seal the border about 124-milelong West Berlin.

Between 1961 and 1989 approximately 5,000 successful people had defected to the West. An estimated 150 people were shot trying to cross the Wall, last year less than one before the fall of the wall.

The museums’ three reinforced concrete sections are of the fourth and final generation of the Berlin Wall built between 1975 and 1980. The new wall was crowned by a large pipe scale to make it extremely difficult, Blaker said.

Blaker said that when the Civil War ended, one of 10 Union soldiers were African American. The units were designated the United States colored troops (USCT) and included infantry, cavalry, and light and heavy artillery units. More than 178,000 freed slaves and free blacks served in 175 USCT regiments. Typically, they were all in black regiments commanded by white officers, but a handful of them were commanded by black officers.

Blaker Starsnic Carrie worked with volunteers on the Confederate soldier. The museum director said the museum was a seamstress and made a lot of work in filling the mannequins and making them look good. Funds also sewed flags on exhibition. She and her husband just moved to South Carolina, and Blaker said he did not have anyone to replace her.

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Information from: The Lawton Constitution, http://www.swoknews.com

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