http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2007/10/21-24oct07-tucson-az.html
http://www.dm.af.mil/
Monday morning we headed off to Saguaro National Park, you may remember that during our OCT07 stop in Tucson we visited the Rincon Mountain District of the National Park to the east of Tucson. This time we visited the Tucson Mountain District to the west. (NOTE: This park is also a part of the National Trail System, specifically the Anza Trail named after Juan Bautista de Anza.) We had a wonderful tour led by one of the park volunteers that focused on how the Native Americans used all of the various cacti to survive (turns out the oil of one cactus is better than Sperm Whale oil for cosmetics and fine machinery, and this cactus is now grown commercially). We were going to return to our RV via the Ironwood National Monument. Unfortunately the Monument was established by Congress with no funding, as a result there are no facilities and no Ranger presence. The end result is that the remote area is heavily trafficked by smugglers and dopers, and is not recommended to be traversed by any the National Park staff.
http://www.nps.gov/sagu/http://www.nps.gov/juba/
So we returned to Tucson via freeway to have lunch at Gus Balon’s. They are famous for their cinnamon rolls half the size of a loaf of bread, and that all breads & pies are made on site. Even though it was well past breakfast, Dan had the breakfast burger, while Corrie had a Spanish omelet that she will be eating for three days. We asked the waitress if they had rhubarb pie? They did and she recommended that she could deliver it before the meal. So we had dessert first! That evening we went to the top of Sentinel Peak (aka A-Mountain) to view the sunset and the lights of Tucson.
Tuesday morning Dan headed off to check out the “eccentric” sights of Tucson and the Pima Air & Space Museum, leaving Corrie to RV/house clean! First Dan had to go out and photo document some of the eccentric sights of Tucson before touring the Pima Air Museum. Turns out the Air Museum is the 3rd largest in the USA, behind the Smithsonian and the Air Force one in Dayton, OH. Pretty phenomenal when you consider they do it with no tax dollars! Dan timed his visit so he could take one of the free walking tours with a Docent. It was a great two hour tour starting with an exact replica of the Wright Flyer and finishing with modern jet fighters. Plus there are about three hundred aircraft (including MIGs) and helos sitting out in the desert for you to walk around.
If you ever visit, Dan recommends two unique parts of the Museum. The first is a bus tour of the “boneyard” (aka 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG)). AMARG is the storage area for all military aircraft that have been declared obsolete or excess and this is the only way you can tour it. We are talking over four thousand aircraft, totally over $50 billion of your tax dollars! Sometimes aircraft are sent to the boneyard, only to have DOD reverse their decision. Such was the case of the A-10 “Warthog”. The Air Force decided in early 90s that there was no further need for the aircraft, but Desert Storm soon changed that thinking and now they are upgrading the airframe and avionics to fly it for another 20 years. And they are using parts from scrapped B-52s to keep the remaining two squadrons flying until 2050! We’re talking B-52s that may fly until they are 100 years old! 
The other unique feature of the Air Museum is a “Museum within a Museum”. One of the hangers in the middle of the compound is 390th Bomb Group Museum. This is a stand alone Museum dedicated to the entire short history of the 390th, and run by the survivors of that Group, including a fully restored B-17G. One very sobering statistic was that the original Group deployed to England in 1943 with 37 aircraft; the number of original missions ranged from one to fifty-nine, with the average being 18, and only one of the original 37 planes made it back to the USA. Two unique items on display is the first USA flag ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day, and the Samurai sword presented to General Doolittle at the Japanese surrender onboard the battle ship MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay.One display in particular caught Dan’s attention since we used to live in Holland, and Corrie’s parents emigrated from Holland after the war. It was devoted to Operation Chowhound (or Operation Manna as the Brits called it). Seems that after the Allies Operation Market Garden failed in 1944 and they retreated, the Germans retaliated against the Dutch for their support of the Allies. They retaliated by removing all remaining food supplies and coal from the occupied portions of Holland and giving these supplies to their citizens. It was brutal winter (known as the Hunger Winter) and spring in Holland in 1945, and many people were in danger of starving to death. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who was in exile, negotiated directly with the Nazi government in Holland, and Eisenhower and Churchill to allow Allied bombers to drop food supplies at select sites without being fired upon by the Germans. The Nazis probably realizing the end was near agreed, and 11,000 tons of food was safely dropped to the starving Dutch in April and May. Truly the Greatest Generation!
http://www.pimaair.org/http://www.390th.org/
http://www.dm.af.mil/units/amarc.asp
Trivia: Who was Irishman Hugh O’Connor and what was his significance to Tucson? What are the four deserts in the continental USA? What company was specifically formed in 1943 to make small, high performance, two-stroke engines, for the war effort (think yellow chain saws)?
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