8-5-24 Peyton, CO Part I

There is a fellow nearby, Mel Bernstein, whose nickname is, “Dragonman.”  He is a Viet Nam War veteran and, believe me when I say this, Dragonman bleeds red, white and blue.  On Sunday, we signed up for a tour of Dragonman’s Colorado Springs Historical Military Museum.  I had learned of this place on the Discovery Channel, I think, and it has been on my bucket list for years.  We were both flabbergasted and stunned right from the word, “Go.”  The museum is 78,000 sq. ft. in size and every inch is packed with precious military items, from patches and medals to Jeeps, ambulances and half-tracks and everything imaginable in-between.  There are whole rooms dedicated to each war in which the US has been involved, from the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan.  Some of the items are rare, priceless, one-of-a-kind or nearly-impossible to obtain.  For hours, Justin (a USN veteran) and Dragonman held up and explained to the tour group what many of the precious items represented.  It was a jaw-dropping and sometimes tearful experience (the Holocaust memorabilia was one such).  The museum contains a huge number of firearms and tens of thousands of rounds of live ammo.  The FBI and ATF have Dragonman unrelentingly in their crosshairs.  He is therefore very careful and protective and keeps the museum fenced and under lock and key.  We feel honored to have met him and to have had this experience.

 

Since words do not do justice to this magnificent display, I will let pictures do the talking.

Wooden bullets used by the
Nazis in WWII for target practice

Viet Nam room

Viet Nam uniforms and ammo

Entryway to Dragonman's museum

Suicide bomber's apparel
Mideast wars

Jewish prisoners' garb during
the Holocaust - Each one of these
cost Dragonman $3,000 to obtain.
One is from Auschwitz, one from 
Birkenau and one from Dachau.

Warning signs at the
entrance to Dragonman's 
vast establishment

Another sign

Shackles worn by slaves
on the auction block during
the Civil War era

Sgt. Major USA uniform

Same model Derringer pistol
that John Wilkes Boothe
used to kill Abraham Lincoln.
It fires a 22.

RPG that was used in the
Middle East

Case of RPGs

Just one of many aisles of
our soldiers' uniforms, firearms,
helmets and folded flags

Each uniform belonged
to the soldier pictured 
who was awarded the
Purple Heart.  There is an
entire row of these.

The genuine newspaper front page

All of the military nurses uniforms
from the beginning until now

Nazi Kaiser helmets - priceless

Display of medics from
the Korean War

MASH unit - Korea

Water-cooled machine gun - In 
Dragonman's opinion, the most
reliable machine guns of WWII

USA!  USA!  USA!

Patton display  (I love Patton.)

Rows and rows of Jeeps
and soldiers whose helmets
are honored

Lindy and Dragonman

A flag from Viet Nam

Justin, our other docent said, "We are
not woke, here.  If you are woke,
please leave, now.  No refund."

Rows of jeeps and ambulances

"We got 'im!"  Picture of
the soldier who nailed Saddam
Asshole Hussein.

Saddam Hussein Iraq War era

Poster from the Iraq War

Uniform worn by Hitler
pictured below the uniform

A handcuff used by the
Nazis to haul off the dead Jews' 
bodies to the ovens

Full-body grass
cammo outfit from the
Viet Nam era

Flags of every country in 
our solar system

Dragonman explains how
Samurai used their swords to
commit harakiri if caught - WWII

An exact glass capsule of
cyanide that slips out of a cammo
bullet casing.  Ava Brown bit down
on one of these when she and Hitler
committed sideways.  It causes death
in 2 minutes.  All the Nazi guys
carried one of these in case they
were captured.

British bolt action 
grenade launcher from WWII

This is an authentic silver belt buckle. 
It was worn by Hitler's personal body
guards.  With the touch of a finger,
it could fire 22 rounds into a
possible enemy assassin.  There
were only 15 ever made.

1 1/2 ton 6 wheel cargo truck -
built only fro 1942-45 by Dodge