Which historic military sites have been the most memorable for you?

The historian in me says Gettysburg/Valley Forge. (You can do both in a long weekend). These sites are the birth place of the U.S. Military. So amazing.
From a personal stand point, it starts and ends at Pearl Harbor. I exist because of that.

Berlin Headquarters, Spandau Prison and the Berlin Wall that separated the East from the West during my tour in Berlin, Germany 1974.

It has to be the Alamo for me. It's a reminder that it's a good thing that we have plenty of Mexicans on the U.S.'s side now. I believe that if an illegal comes over and serves in the military for a minimum of 6 years, they should be allowed to become a citizen immediately.

Without a doubt, the Normandy beaches. Six months afterward, I got to revisit them in a diorama at the Eisenhower Museum in Kansas.

For me that's easy. I had the opportunity to go to Washington DC. One night after we had dinner we drove around and ended up at The Wall. Most didn't know I had served and were surprised when they saw the tears running down my face.

It's a toss up between Iwo Jima and Normandy(beaches and towns). Since Iwo Jima is relatively unchanged, you can "feel" the battle if there is such a feeling. While Normandy is cleaned up, you get a deeper understanding of the brutality of the invasion by standing in the artillery and bomb craters on the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc; by walking through the American Cemetery above Omaha Beach and by seeing Utah Beach at low tide.

Mine would be a toss up between Iwo Jima and the beaches and towns of Normandy. Iwo Jima is surreal in that you can "feel" the battle since very little has changed. While Normandy is cleaned up, you get a deep understanding of what went on when walking the grounds of Pointe du Hoc and the American cemeteries as well as seeing Utah Beach at low tide. The towns of St Lo and St Mere Eglise are humbling as well.

For me it would have to be either watching the changing of the guard or Gettysburg battle field.

Gettysburg is a favorite, partly because of the Signal Corps side of the battle. Most impressive, though, is the role of Alonzo Cushing in the dramatic artillery battle immediately preceeding Pickett s Charge. His Medal of Honor Citation was finally approved not all that long ago, and if you read it, that alone is dramatic enough, but if you have walked the battlefield, it can not fail to impress. Some gave all.

I cannot begin to describe the weight and awe I feel upon me when I visit the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri. As was described during the tour of the Mighty Mo, the two ships represent the start and the end of WWII. And no matter how.... boisterous the group may be ashore at the Arizona Memorial... there remains always a hushed reverence aboard the site.