Ogden Air Museum a Good Way to Break Cabin Fever

A couple of days after presents are opened and the house is crowded with family from out-of-town, you may be looking to break cabin fever.  I highly recommend the air museum at Hill Air Force Base.  It’s easy to find and just off Interstate 15 in Ogden.

Admission is a suggested donation.

The first time I paid a visit I was very much impressed.  There are exhibits indoors and outdoors.  Some of the earliest planes hang from the museum ceiling.  There are World War Two era planes and fighters and bombers from successive wars.

There is a jet that served as Air Force One during the Johnson Presidency.  It was known as Lady Bird’s grocery getter.

During one trip to the museum a volunteer guide shared a story with me.  Many of the World War Two exhibits depict the Japanese in cartoon form and there are some “politically incorrect” slogans depicting life on the home front.  He told a woman complaining about what she saw the museum didn’t have any plans to airbrush history.

In other words, the displays are true to history.

There is one exhibit that reminds us war isn’t pretty.  It’s a reconstruction of a cell at the notorious Hanoi Hilton, the prison where the North Vietnamese held downed American pilots.  It’s claustrophobic and medieval.  Some of our countrymen spent several years living in those conditions.

I would book a couple of hours for seeing all the planes and exhibits.  The guides are also well versed in the details of everything you’ll encounter.