Fort Sill

We visited a Comanche museum in town. There was information about their code talkers during WW I and II. I’d only heard about the Navaho language used as a code but Comanche was used too.

Fort Sill is nearby. It’s a military base with several good museums and historical areas. While I liked the different cannon, guns, rockets, and missile systems, I really enjoyed the stories at the US Army Air Defense Artillery Museum…“One maker of Civil War uniforms, named Shoddy, glued together wool scraps from the floor for some of his government contract coats. They fell off the soldiers at the first rain and became the source of the word “shoddy” meaning poor quality.” And, about an experimental muzzle-loading gun meant to be fired from the back of the mule…”Unfortunately, the reaction of the mule to having a small cannon fired off its back was not fully considered…when the piece was tested, the mule broke loose, began to whirl around, scattering the alarmed witnesses, then the mule stepped on the lanyard and fired the piece itself. The force of the recoil is said to have knocked the mule “ass over teakettle” into a nearby river”.

  

Eniac, an early computer, was compared to a 2006 Intel Chip. Besides the obvious speed (5,000 calculations per second vs 21.6 billion operations per second), and size (30 tons vs a fingernail), I like the power comparison (170,000 watts vs 31 watts). The old computers must have been fun to power!

There is a small museum about the start of Fort Sill in 1869. Some of the early buildings can be toured while others are still in use. Also on the base is an Apache cemetery which has the grave of Geronimo. Geronimo came to Fort Sill after being in Fort Pickens in Pensacola.

The military base is right beside the wildlife refuge. As we hike or from the campgrounds we can hear ordinance going off. It takes a little while to get used to this “thunder”. And, a morning shot from the campground.