While we were visiting the hometown of Duck Commanders, we drove just a couple of miles up the road to what was a fav Louisiana stop for my guys. Located in Monroe, the Chennault Aviation Museum is a fantastic stop for any history/military buff. Needless to say, my tribe LOVED it. And actually, I still owe my guys for the fact that I over-scheduled our Saturday and they had to leave long before they would have chosen to!
When we got there, we were met by 2 retired gentlemen, both who had been in the service. And they were the kind of guides that we always hope to get – friendly with a border-line obsession with whatever subject is being covered at the museum we are at! LOL! The guides asked us how long we had to visit the museum, then custom tailored our stay for that amount of time.
Our guide first took us to watch a film on the history of this location. Chennault was from this area, and (extremely condensed version) was best known as the leader of the Flying Tigers, and helping China set up their air force during WWII.
After the short film (approx 15 min), we began to tour the Chennault Aviation & Military Museum. There are several galleries that are full of displays featuring local military members (which I thought was really neat) with a lot of memorabilia. There are a lot of heros from this neck of the woods…
In this hallway, with rooms opening to it on either side, the left side is set aside for Army personnel, and the right is for the other branches. The names above the rooms are the men/families that funded that area. All displays are in chronological order from WWI to Vietnam.
These were so interesting – it was easy to get sucked into each person’s story, almost as if you knew them, or at least could imagine their lives; knowing that this area was their hometown, where their family lives, their jobs and lives were, makes it even more personal.
The museum was very clean, with spacious walkways, and it was very nicely laid out. I love it when museums like this are put in chronological order as it helps the littler kids understand how events played out in history.
We were given a great, personalized tour, with fun insider information about some of the local heros displayed here, but if you happen to be there when the museum is busier (we were, for the most part, the only ones there), the museum also offers an audio tour via your cell phone, with instructive plaques throughout the museum.
We didn’t even get into all the rooms before we had to leave for our last destination (nearly everything in Monroe is closed on Sundays and Mondays, including the Chennault A&M Museum, which would put us out too far on our future reservations). We did really like our next stop, but I still owe my boys a return visit to Monroe’s Chennault Aviation & Military Museum!!!
If you are a history/military buff who likes to read all the displays, I would recommend 3 to 4 hours; if you are a fly-thru browser, an hour would probably do you. Either way, this free museum is impressive for it’s size. Definitely a hidden gem, so plan on stopping if you can!
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