26 Apr 2025 - Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery and Museums - Telephone, POW-MIA, Ordinance and Civil War

 

We had a big day at the Jefferson Barracks Military Post (hereafter "JB"), which is the home of the Jefferson Barrack National Cemetery and a list of museums to include Telephone, POW-MIA, Ordinance and Civil War.  There is also a huge VA center here and both Army and Air National Guards.   They have done a great job of preserving the very old structures.  

We stared the day at the telephone museum and were surprised to find it difficult to locate a parking spot for the big ol' brown truck!  Today there was apparently a local Pontiac GTO Club visiting JB and we arrived right after they did!  It was great to see some neat old cars from our era!

The telephone museum is housed in one of the beautifully restored and preserved 1896 buildings here on JB. 

The volunteers who run the museum were former Bell System employees and the contents of the museum have been donated by people from across the Nation over the years.  There are literally hundreds of different types of novelty and regular telephones, a central office step-by-step telephone switch that works, tools, signs, cell phones, corded switchboards, pole climbing equipment, pay phones, a telephone booth, military phones and telephone memorabilia of all sorts.  

Since we arrived right after the GTO club, we were able to tag onto the back end of their guided tour conducted by a former Bell employee which was very informative!  A few pictures:

Telephone tools and test equipment - I've used most of these!

Phones

Phones

Phones

and more phones!!

Corded switchboard

Picture Phones - very expensive, ahead of their time and unsuccessful.  

Doreen with a "brick" cell phone - one of the first for some people,

and where it all started, Mr, Alexander Graham Bell.

That was awesome.  I am a dial tone guy!  It is a good day when you can find a nice telephone museum!  I found one in Maine, one in Texas and others scattered throughout the United States.  Arguably better than a Wizard of Oz Museum ha ha.  But honestly, phones were a game changer, and I can remember having a wooden crank wall phone at my grandmother's house in Van Horne Iowa.  I can remember having three-digit dial in DeWitt Iowa in the early 60's. I think our number was 700.  Then I recall the coming of "touch tone" and they converted to seven-digit dial 659-5730 with our area code of 319.  Back then, the center digit of every area code was either a 0 or a 1.  Now you know, but not any more.  And no, it was not called a "hash tag", it was a "pound sign" or "number sign"!  But in the telephone school I attended they called it something else, starting with a "O".  Anyone guess?

The next building to the west was the  POW-MIA museum.  The GTO group bypassed it so we stopped and basically had the place to ourselves.   Outside they have a mock guard tower.  

The mission of the POW-MIA Museum is "to reverently honor all who served our country from any branch of the United States military who were captured by enemies of the United States or who are missing in action from any year and from any conflict'".  The museum is beautifully and respectfully done with pictures, accounts and artifacts of many who were prisoners of war or are still missing in action.  They are doing their best here to honor, educate and remember.  "As long as they are remembered, they will live forever..."

Two telegrams - PFC Melford G. Masters was captured by the Germans, and later was released.

Excerpt from PFC Masters diary when he was delivered to the POW camp

The story of another POW, Lt Mike Chistian and an interesting story about his flag.

The museum was full of names and stories.  You could literally spend hours and hours reading about all these great Americans.  

We continued through several rooms of displays and information.  These old buildings do not have elevators so they cannot display all of the artifacts they have on just one floor. 

Incredible photos from and camera that was snuck in and out of the camp where the POW's were forced to march 18 days, 281 miles to Braunau Austria.

After finishing our tour of the POW-MIA museum we made our way to the Ordinance Museum since the GTO group stopped at the Civil War Museum.  

The Ordinance Museum is "a technical museum showing the evolution of United States ammunition from around 1900 to the present day".  Here we saw powder canisters, grenades, shells, bombs, missiles, torpedoes and any other type of ordinance you can think of.  Of course it is all inert, meaning the ammunition or explosives that have been rendered completely harmless.  A few pictures:

An Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG)

Fuses of all types and sizes

Torpedoes and bombs.

The inside of a steam-powered torpedo including the gyro system.

Torpedo has two propellers that operate in opposite directions 

which helps to keep the torpedo traveling straight

Imagine being on the receiving end of any of these.  That top one is full of ball bearings

Wide selection of munitions

Rockets of all types

M2 Browning Machine Gun Trainer

Just down the road from here is our last stop for today, the Civil War Museum.    

The museum has hundreds of original artifacts on display all relating to Missouri's involvement in the American Civil War.  We started out watching a short movie on the history the Jefferson Barracks Historic Site and of the building.  The story of the building is amazing in itself.  It has served various purposes from a PX to a hospital. It has a gymnasium room and a running track inside and it once had a bowling alley also.

This room was the gymnasium and you can see the second floor running track that encircles the room.

Interesting weapons on display including this "pepperbox"

We then headed downstairs for more displays.  

I took many, many more pictures, but we will bring this to a close.  All of the museums we've seen here were outstanding.  It is so nice to see them preserve these buildings and display the important history of our great Nation.  On the way home we passed through the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, and it was overwhelming.  As of 2021, there were approximately 237,000 interments at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. The cemetery covers 331 acres.  Row after row of grave markers, not unlike Arlington.  Everyone of these warriors raised their hand and swore to support and defend, and many gave the ultimate sacrifice,  Respect.  

Tomorrow will be our last day here.  At least one of our grandsons has a baseball game tomorrow but other than that we have not mapped out a plan yet other than getting fuel, dumping tanks and preparing to depart Monday morning.  

It was a good day!