World War II era re-enactors pose near the restored Memphis Bellie, B-17F bomber at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton in May 2018.
Marvin Fong | The Plain Dealer (TNS)
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Stroll a long-ago battlefield, inspect a B-2 bomber, admire the artwork of veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress.
Veterans Day is next week, and numerous sites throughout Ohio honor the men and women who served their country. Visit a museum, park or historic home. You can even hear Joe Walsh in concert with his James Gang bandmates at VetsAid 2022, a Columbus event that will raise money for veterans organizations.
Want to put together your own veterans-themed November road trip? Consider these stops:
* The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton is the world’s largest military aviation museum, spread across 19 acres inside. Among the artifacts on display: the Air Force One where President Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office after John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963, a B-2 stealth bomber and the B-29 Bockscar, which dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
* The National Veterans Memorial and Museum, new in Columbus in 2018, features interactive storytelling focused on the lives of individual veterans, Revolutionary War through Afghanistan. The museum recently debuted a special exhibit, “Identity: Exploring Veteran Narratives Through Art + Music,” created in collaboration with CreatiVets. The exhibit features 21 pieces of artwork and music from veterans seeking healing via the creative process, including those working through traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress.
* MAPS Air Museum in North Canton, with exhibits on Pearl Harbor, the Home Front and the Tuskegee Airmen, along with dozens of aircraft on site; and the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum in Tuscarawas County, a former World War II canteen where 1.3 million service members were served complimentary meals as they headed off to war via the National Defense Strategic Railway.
If the weather is nice, there are battlefields in Ohio to explore, including Buffington Island Battlefield Memorial Park on the Ohio River east of Pomeroy, home to the only Civil War battle in Ohio, in July 1863, a decisive victory for the Union. And in Northwest Ohio, there’s Fallen Timbers battlefield, part of the Toledo Metroparks, site of a decisive American victory in August 1794 over Native American and British opponents, which secured the territory for settlement.
Or tour the childhood home of Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in Lancaster or the Fremont estate of 19th President Rutherford B. Hayes, also a Civil War general.
If you like your heroes with a musical soundtrack, consider attending VetsAid 2022, rocker Joe Walsh’s fifth annual fundraiser for veterans causes. The show starts at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.
Walsh, who grew up in Columbus and attended Kent State University, is the son of an Air Force flight instructor who died in a plane crash in 1949. He launched VetsAid in 2017, rotating the host city and inviting artists to join him on stage. Performing at this year’s all-Ohio show: Walsh, reunited with the James Gang, plus Dave Grohl, Nine Inch Nails, the Black Keys and the Breeders. For information, including a steaming option, go to vetsaid.com.
