Sunday, July 1, 2018

Currahee Military Museum in Toccoa, Georgia (With Appreciation To England )

Georgia Girl With An English Heart!  Read the following and you can see that the Currahee Military Museum is right up my alley! (You will also understand about the nod to England in my title.)

Look on the side of my blog.  Do you see that  Toccoa, Georgia is my place of birth?  My father was also born there AND his father before him! Since my Dad is now 91 years old, we have a long history of living in that area.  Growing up, my mother's father had land on that same road as Camp Toccoa. In the early 1960's, all that was left of the camp were the abandoned white buildings that I would ask about when we would go past them in the car.  In hushed tones I was told about the paratroopers who trained there in World War II.  The stories about them were always conveyed with the deepest respect.  There were a few books written about them but it was not until Stephen Ambrose wrote his best selling book "Band of Brothers" that most people first heard of the camp.  This put Toccoa "on the map" so to speak.  (And really, it was the mini-series film adaption produced by Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg that did so.  I will ask folks if they have read the book and hardly anyone has but "they have seen the movie".  The mini-series is excellent, I agree but if you get the chance...please read the book, it is very good.)  


Currahee Mountain is about five miles from the train depot in Toccoa, Georgia.  When the soldiers arrived there, they walked to the camp which at the beginning was called "Camp Toombs".  This was named after a Confederate general but when the commanding officer, Col. Sink, heard the name and also noticed that the men were walking past a casket company that was in Toccoa, he petitioned to change the name and therefore the Army agreed to the change and it became Camp Toccoa.


Currahee Military Museum and Stephens County History Museum are in the same place- the old train depot in Toccoa, Georgia.  Now, both of these are fascinating to me and I hope that if you visit you will spend time in both.  




  CURRAHEE.  The paratroopers used this as their motto since "Currahee" is a Native American word that means "we stand alone".    The paratroopers were the first to be dropped into Europe just before D-Day.  If you have read "Band of Brothers" you will know this already!  But you WILL read it, won't you?  Please do!


Time it just right and you will hear/see a train going past!


What about the English part? Okay, here it is...




After training, the men from Camp Toccoa were sent to Aldbourne, England.  They were housed in stables from mid 1943 until 1944 in preparation for D-Day. (I hope you all know the date of June 6, 1944 for the beach landings in Normandy, France.  Remembering, of course, that the paratroopers were flown in just before the landings.)
If you can read the sign above, one of the stables is now proudly inside the museum and it is one of the original stables from England! What a wonderful story, I think.  If you notice, the four Englishmen even came to Georgia and re-assembled the building! I love that they did that.    





I have mentioned Camp Toccoa before in my posts, you may read one of them just here.    



There are nice benches in the museum and not only that but they also have very nice wheelchairs for those who might need them.  My Dad used one of them and at the end of the tour, we asked if we should take it back to the front of the museum but were kindly told that they would take care of it.  It was most pleasant to speak with them, makes me proud to be from Toccoa, Georgia!



 I am thankful that the Currahee Military Museum exists to celebrate the "Toccoa men" and to honor all veterans and active duty military.  There are plans to even further honor them with a museum at Currahee Mountain itself.. You may see that website just here.   (Camp Toccoa at Currahee Project.)







My heart is full after writing this post. So difficult to explain my own admiration for these men who trained at Camp Toccoa! I have read every book about them that I could find, including the memoirs that many of them wrote.  Most of them have passed away now, so it is more important than ever, I believe, that we remember them and honor them.  (I worked as a travel agent for almost 20 years during the 1980's and 1990's and talked with many vets going to their World War II reunions.  I see now how lucky I was to personally speak with them.  What a great bunch of guys! I salute them all.)

22 comments:

  1. What an amazing generation they were, i am glad there is a museum so we don’t forget.

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    1. They have visitors here from all over the world too. They were amazed that they had just had visitors from New Zealand!

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  2. When I took an Amtrak to atlanta, we stopped (sorta, just to pick up or drop off passengers) at Tocca on the way. If I remember right, I think that was the one right before atlanta.

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    1. Yes, Amtrak goes straight through Toccoa. As a kid, I loved to see the people eating in the dining cars as the train whizzed by, fascinating to a small town girl!

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  3. Looks like a great museum! Yes, the youngest WW2 vets would all be in their 90s now, the ones who are still with us. And as for "Band of Brothers," I have never read the book OR seen the mini-series. I'd like to watch the mini-series some day.

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    1. After you watch it, you will see what a very tough bunch of guys they were and Camp Toccoa was where they trained!

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  4. Interesting history and museum. As children we used to play in an overgrown set of ruined buildings in woodlands we nicknamed the 'Lost World.' Creepy, mysterious, adventurous, but exciting. Found out much later in life it was a WW1 and WW2 training camp with several rows of long, very deep and straight concrete trenches to get recruits used to fighting and living in them before they arrived in Europe. Watched Band of Brothers a few years ago.

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    1. My uncle just told me that as a very small child he would collect the shell casings from one of the ranges. They lived very close to the camp and used to give the men water from their well and would salute them as the soldiers marched by. Everyone has stories of the Toccoa men if they lived there during the time.

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  5. Yes, a big salute to all men and women in our military. Now I really to have to watch The Band of Brothers. It's been on my list for awhile and how appropriate too with the 4th of July coming ! Happy Monday, hope you have a great week!

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    1. I really should come back and add the books that I have read about them, the ones written by some of men from Easy Company. They were great guys and I loved their books.
      Hope you have a wonderful 4th of July!

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  6. My heart is full after reading your excellent post. I am someone who has neither read the book nor seen the movie, so after your suggestion I think I will read the book. I'll get it and put it in my tbr pile and get to it in time. I usually don't read books about war, but I have the greatest respect for that greatest generation.

    I hope you can remove the comment above mine. The writer must have blanketed blogdom with this. I had it this morning, but deleted it before it was published. Sounds like a troll. I wouldn't go to the blog, either. Who knows what malware is there.

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    1. Oh yes, I get that comment from time to time but since I am at work all day, I don't always see it until later! I wonder...is it best to "delete" it or hit the "spam" button? I hit "spam" and that also deletes it, so I hope that is what I should do!
      I am so glad you liked my post. It is so hard for me to write about something that is close to my heart! I think that Stephen Ambrose is a GREAT writer! He wrote many other books, "Undaunted Courage" is another one I love, about Lewis & Clark! (Read it and you will be amazed at all the help they received from the very young Indian woman, Sacagawea! If the war book about Band of Brothers is too intense for you, then read "Undaunted Courage"!
      Like you though, I have the greatest respect for the WW2 generation, I don't see them as elderly, I think of them as young men, as they were in the 1940's. xx

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    2. I was born in January 1945 and all the fathers of my friends had been in WWII. It was part of the world I grew up in. Very real to me.

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    3. Part of the world you grew up in, I know just what you mean! I hope you were not offended by what I wrote in my reply to you! It is just that so often people used to tell me..."oh, my Dad would be interested in those war stories but not me" and I would just be frustrated in trying to tell them about these great guys who...let's face it, were a great help in ending the war! Born in 1945, you were born the year that my Dad went into the US Army and was sent straight to Berlin at the age of 18. His older brothers had been in the war, one of them in Patton's army, he was never the same.

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  7. I have never been to Georgia and just know about it because of your blog and the newspaper. Thanks for this.

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    1. Thank you for your comment! Seems the whole world has moved to Georgia now. I am a small town gal and can't get used to all the traffic that are on the roads now. Still, progress, I suppose! :-)

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  8. A great post, Kay...very interesting...thanks. :)

    Sorry I'm running late with my response.

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    1. Thank you, Lee. You left this comment on July 4th, so that makes it a special honor. x

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  9. Thanks for sharing this fascinating post, Kay! I take photos of information plaques too ~ It's my way of taking notes to remember information on the move.

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    1. It is best for me to take photos of the information signs like that, I tend to forget details of names, dates, etc. and that is tough when you are trying to remember things for a blog post!

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  10. Fascinating, Kay. Your title drew me in - I immediately recognised the reference having both seen the TV series AND read the Ambrose book, 'Band of Brothers'. Such an amazing story - and humbling. I'm also privileged to have visited several sites in the D-Day area. Wonderful to discover that a museum exiss here - it's only fitting that it should - and its origins are delightful! Sorry I'm way behind with my blog visits.

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    1. I would dearly love to see Normandy and the memorials that are there. So glad you read the book also! Stephen Ambrose was an excellent writer and that tends to get overlooked when a book is made into a movie or mini series.
      Thanks very much for your comment. I am not able to comment on your blog anymore, not sure why.

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