With Veterans' Day being commemorated this week, it is fitting to honor the contribution of the armed forces with a glimpse at a few travel options to historic battlegrounds and sites of enduring military significance. Traveling to the battlefields of Europe, the treacherous waterways of Vietnam, the islands of the Pacific, or the memorials of battles fought in the U.S. are rewarding and educational travel experiences for a wide swath of military buffs, veterans, family members of the military, and history lovers.
Valor Tours (tel. 800/842-4504; www.valortours.com) is a military history tour operator that runs a series of special interest trips to Asia, the Pacific and Europe, visiting significant battle and memorial sites. Run by a former WWII pilot, it was initially set up for veterans and their families but its clientele has expanded to include history buffs and those with a general interest in the U.S. military. In 2009, they will be offering a selection of 15 individual trips to locations including Gallipoli (Turkey), the Philippines, Vietnam, Guadalcanal, Guam, Germany, France and Iwo Jima. The "Return to Vietnam" trip is priced at $3,095 per person based on twin share. This tour is a combination of war and cultural history and includes visits to Hanoi to Hue, Hoi An, Danang, Mekong Delta, Dong Ha, Can Tho, and Ho Chi Minh City escorted by Colonel John Dewing. Departing on 9, 2009, this 15 day trip includes airfare from San Francisco, a Vietnam visa, touring and accommodation for 13 nights.
The "Ghost Soldiers of Bataan and Hellships Memorial" tour departs for the Philippines from San Francisco on April 2, 2009. This ten day journey, escorted by Steve Kwiecinski (son of a U.S. service man taken prisoner in the Philippines during WWII), visits the American Battle Monument at Manila, Corregidor, Bataan, Subic Bay, Clark Field, and Cabanatuan with an optional extension to Bangkok and the River Kwai, Thailand. The tour is priced at $2,950 per person, twin share.
"Return to Guadalcanal" on August 2, 2009 for a nine-day trip that departs from Los Angeles and visits Nadi (Fiji), Henderson Field, and Guadalcanal for a week of touring Beach Red, Edson's Ridge, Mt. Austen, Tenaru River, the Gifu, Matanikau River, Iron Bottom Sound, Tulaghi, Gavutu, Tanambogo, and Purvis Bay. Travelers will attend a ceremony at the American/Allied Memorial and tree planting in Memorial Gardens. The cost is $3,195 per person, twin share including airfare.
The "WWI Battlefield Tour" to France (and Belgium) runs from April 28 to May 9, 2009 and costs $3,650 per person plus international airfare. Escorted by Michael Hanlon, an expert WWI writer and editor, the tour travels from Paris to Flanders and visits Vimy Ridge, the Somme, Verdun and the American Argonne, St. Mihiel, Chateau Thierry and Belleau Wood battlefields. The "65th Anniversary D-Day Normandy Invasion" tour is a seven-day trip that begins in Paris on June 2, 2009. Travel by private coach to Normandy where the group will spend five days covering the D-Day Normandy Allied invasion beaches, bunkers, museums, memorials, bridges, and cemeteries associated with D-Day. Participate in ceremonies and view parachute drop reenactment. The tour will be escorted by Valor Tours owner Bob Reynolds and Michael Hanlon and costs $2,595 per person, land only. Immediately following on from the D-Day tour (June 8 to 17, 2009) is a ten-day "Battle of the Bulge and Eagle's Nest" tour of France, Germany, and Belgium, visiting Reims, Luxembourg, Bastogne, the Maginot Line, Hitler's hideaway at Eagle's Nest, Munich, and Dachau. The group is escorted by historian/author retired Captain Wilbur Jones at a cost of $3,195 per person land only from Paris to Munich.
Stephen Ambrose, who passed away in 2002, is a well-known name for military history enthusiasts. As the author of the best-selling book Band of Brothers, his family runs Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours (tel. 888/903-3329; www.stephenambrosetours.com) specializing primarily in WWII itineraries in Europe and the Pacific but also incorporating local trips to Civil War sites. The Band of Brothers Tour follows the path of Easy Company (the paratroopers of E Company, 101st Airborne, 506th PIR who participated in some of WWII's most critical battles) from its training bases in Toccoa, Georgia and England into combat in Normandy, into Holland where they explore Operation Market Garden, then to Belgium, and on to final victory at Berchtesgaden, Adolf Hitler's Alpine retreat. Participants will stand with Easy Company veterans (at least one veteran escorts each trip) in the very foxholes and precise locations where they fought in some of the most climactic battles of World War II.
The tour is based on the recollections of the paratroopers themselves and the extensive research of Stephen Ambrose and the editors of Military History Quarterly and World War II magazines, offering an unparalleled experience in terms of accuracy and insight. The 14-day tour includes trans-Atlantic airfare from Atlanta to London, and from Munich back to Atlanta; English Channel crossing to Normandy via ferry; a full-time historian and logistical escort; an educational road book full of maps and historical information; first class accommodations; touring by first class air-conditioned motorcoach; 13 breakfasts, 12 dinners and a welcome reception; and all entrance fees to museums and attractions. The two 2009 tours depart on May 8 and September 4 and is priced at $6,200 per person based on double occupancy (with an $800 single supplement).
The company's U.S. Civil War tour will run in early November, 2009. The itinerary was designed by Stephen Ambrose and includes a full-time historian and logistical escort; six nights in a local hotels (including taxes and service charges); touring by first class air-conditioned motorcoach; six breakfasts, five dinners and a welcome reception; and all entrance fees to museums and attractions. The tour starts in New Orleans and takes in sites of historical battles fought along the Mississippi River and to the East in the fight to control key Confederate transport routes. Visit Chalmette Battlefield and the Confederate Museum in New Orleans; Port Hudson, a Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi in 1862 and the site of a 48 day siege, the longest in American history; Port Hudson State Commemorative Area (for a battlefield walking tour and gun demonstration); Natchez, Bruinsburg Landing; Nashville; Windsor Ruins; Port Gibson; Vicksburg and the Vicksburg National Military Park, Tupelo; Nashville; Brice's Crossroads, historic Corinth; Shiloh National Military Park; Chattanooga; Murfreesboro; Stone's River Battlefield; the famous Jack Daniel's Distillery; and Chickamagua, one of the bloodiest sites in Civil War history. This seven-day tour is priced at $1,775 per person
The U.S. National Park Service has the honor of preserving many battlefields, military parks, and historic sites that commemorate and honor the service of American veterans. The freedoms they fought for are remembered throughout the National Park System in areas as diverse as Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, Fort McHenry National Monument in Maryland, King's Mountain National Military Park in South Carolina, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana, Appomattox Court House National Historical Park in Virginia, USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii, and Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site in Texas. As recognition for service, all military personnel, past and present, and their families will receive free admittance to these and any of the country's 391 National Parks on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 in honor of Veterans' Day.
