We took a quick trip over to Ft. Huachuca, AZ. The fort dates back to when the frontier settlers need protection from the Apache and Mexicans. It became the fort that trained and housed the 10 Cavalry commonly called the Buffalo Soldiers. Until desegregation come to the Army after WWII, the black cavalry soldiers were all trained and commanded from Ft. Huachuca.
When the army got serious about electronic signal intelligence, they needed a electronically quiet place to do their research. The valley where Ft Huachuca is located provided that dead zone without much interference. So beside the frontier history, and the Buffalo Soldier history, there is the SIGINT history and current work for Military Intelligence (MI).
Because it's an active military base, we had to clear security and get badges to enter. The fort is right under some mountains and has a great view in all directions. We went up the top and took some photos looking into the valley.
There are really 2 museums. The legacy museum and the MI museum. We did both and we enjoyed both. The legacy museum is located in a part of the fort that is original. The museum is housed in the old officers club.
The MI museum is in a more modern section of the fort. It's located in the same building as the MI Library and has a lot of interesting artifacts like a piece of the Berlin Wall, an Enigma machine, etc. I remember when Intel shipped tons of Xenix 8086 computers to Ft. Huachuca for use in MI. I never knew what they used them for.
I posted some other photos on Flickr
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