Camp Van Dorn WWII Museum

After we left the radio station, our group went to the Camp Van Dorn WWII Museum in Centreville, Ms.

Here’s a brief description from their website:

Camp Van Dorn played a key role in one of the biggest wars this country and the world has ever seen. It was a place for rigorous training for soldiers before they went on to greater challenges. For the brief time the camp was operational, it also became the back bone of Centreville.

This is a replica of the set up and buildings at the training camp.

It had a cute little chapel for the soldiers.

This museum had three older ladies from this small town working to show us around.  This was our guide. 

 

 

This is a picture of the general where the camp got its name.

  

A framed cloth with many of the soldiers signatures.

Each year there is a reunion where this bell is rung.  Then, a gold-plate is engraved with the place where it was held.  There won’t be many more since most of the veterans aren’t living anymore.

My troop :)

Ian, Cai, Tate, and Abram

(Isaac was in the stroller and I was carrying Asa.)

Remember, my others (Cade, Emma, and Sarah) were not with us that day.

This German flag was signed by all of the soldiers who captured this flag from the enemies.

 

 

She was telling the children that they had to stop wearing that uniform because it looked too much like the enemies’.

At the end of the museum, there was a long hallway with many pictures of the soldiers who were stationed at Camp Van Dorn.

This sweet little lady in yellow who works at the museum was telling several of us stories about different soldiers.  You see she is from this little town and she knows some of these soldiers personally or has had them and their families stay with her.  It was really neat getting to hear some of these stories from her.

After the tour, they turned on a video about the camp while we waited to meet the other group so we could go travel to the transmitter tower for the radio station.

Sound Radio Field Trip

A few weeks ago, some families from our homeschool group drove up to Centreville, Ms to The Sound radio station.  The kids got to tour the little station and learn about the process from the person talking to hearing it on the radio.

Centreville is a small town in Mississippi.  It has a population around 1300 people.  However, they have this radio station from which sound teaching and preaching are heard for miles around and a WWII Museum (That will be the next post!)

This is what you see when you pull to the building in a little courtyard.

 

The group

Getting ready to walk into the radio station.

The kids watching Pastor Willie Kennedy through the window talking on the radio.

The radio station is in an old store building very classic for a small town.  It used to be the Chapman Brothers which is where they got the sign and the glass case.  The case had different items brought to them from missionaries around the world.

Pastor Kennedy is showing and telling the kids about the process from the microphone and sound board to the transmitter tower.

 

The adults were enjoying the lesson too.

In the back of the radio station is a room that is set up like a little chapel.  They have it for prayer time and hold little services there every now and then.  On the wall was a map that showed the coverage area for the airways of this station.  It covers some parts of Mississippi and Louisiana.

Waiting in the front of the building while the other group was at the museum next door.

We broke our group into two smaller groups since the radio station and museum were small.  One group toured the station while the other one toured the museum.  Then, we swapped.

After both tours, Pastor Kennedy drove the entire group in a caravan about 1 1/2 miles away to the big transmitter tower for the station.  It is 500 feet in the air.   

 

You can the see the transmitter station in the background.

After we got there, Pastor Kennedy was talking to some of the adults and the kids got distracted chasing small grasshoppers in the tall grass.

Ian said, “Look mom at the tiny grasshopper!”

Pastor Kennedy took us in the transmitter station.  It had a/c which was nice considering how hot it was outside :)  He told them all about the transmitter and more of the process.

This was a great field trip.  My next post will be about the Camp Van Dorn WWII Museum that we toured while in Centreville. 

After we left the transmitter tower, we caravanned to a park about 35 miles away in Liberty, Ms to picnic and play.  Some of us were able to eat but it started raining on us so we had to cut the playtime short:(