Tag: military
Before Google Earth There was the CORONA Program
CORONA was America’s first satellite program, developed as a safer way to gather intelligence after a U-2 aircraft was shot down and the pilot captured. This cold war era program was, at its core, a way to spy on the Soviet Union.That Was One Big Sarah With a Dynamic Past
YUMA – Sarah Bowman was a large woman. So large that she was nicknamed “the Great Western,” after a huge ocean-going steamship known throughout the country. She was a camp follower who hooked up with, and married, several soldiers so she could travel with the Army. After her first marriage, she became the first prostitute ...A Graveyard for Winged Warriors in Tucson
TUCSON -- Where to old airplanes go to die? The Boneyard. Officially known as the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, the Boneyard is a central depot for U.S. military planes that have been taken out of service and put into storage. More than 5,000 of them now sit on 2,600 acres in the desert near ...Worldly Art Inside St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church
SIERRA VISTA -- Those who stop for an initial visit and prayers at St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church here might mistakenly get the impression that they have inadvertently stumbled into an art gallery. It's understandable because there is art everywhere inside.Eternal Flickers at Patagonia Shrine
PATAGONIA -- Near a small jog in the pavement south of Patagonia, cars pull into a small area where a set of cement stairs leads to a small shrine carved into a large rock. Several candles surround the religious statues inside the grotto. They flicker day and night, illuminating the small space while their smoke ...Sitting in the Cockpit of Gen. MacArthur’s Personal Aircraft
VALLE - Most people never get the chance to plop their behinds down on a seat that once held the rear end of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the World War II and Korean War leader. But there's an opportunity here, in the Planes of Fame Air Museum. One of the planes on display is the huge ...Anthem’s Amazing Solar Tribute to Veterans
Anthem's new Veterans Memorial is impressive, touching and monumental and, in a way, most unusual. It is composed of five large marble pillars of varying height, standing in perpendicular perfection about two feet apart.Titan Missiles Once Housed at Catalina Church Site
CATALINA -- On a hillside just west of Oracle Road, a church sits as a classic example of turning swords into plowshares. These days, all is peaceful and calm as the Montana United Methodist Church and there is no sign of the instrument of war that once lurked directly beneath the plot of ground now ...The Story of Buckey O’Neill: Arizona’s Happy Warrior
Prescott is one of Arizona's most historically-conscious communities. Public-spirited citizens have worked long and hard to keep the rich cultural heritage alive. Standing in front of the old Yavapai County Courthouse is a bronze statue of a soldier on a spirited horse. This monument honors a group of young Arizonans who gallantly served their country ...Discrete Monument Honors Mormon Battalion Near Casa Grande
Regarding monuments Will Rogers used to say: "You don't need much monument if the cause is good. It's only the monument that's for no reason at all that has to be big." On the outskirts of Casa Grande, along what used to be the main highway...
