Awesome show you got to witness! Reminds me of when I was in the Boy Scouts years ago. We went down to Fort Knox Kentucky for a camp out a couple times. Pretty awesome base if I say so myself. The first time we went they had the General George Patton Tank Museum. All over the museum was various armored vehicles (mostly tanks) from the first world war to the modern day. We also had the opportunity to dine in one of the mess halls and eat along side soldiers from the US Army. We also got to go bowling and we went swimming in the local recreational center. Which lead to another strange story.
I was a first year scout when we went the first time to fort Knox, I was around eleven years old. We were swimming at the rec center but the pool was divided. One side was open to the public, the other was reserved to this large group of teenage boys, all with their heads shaved. Maybe they were ROTC(reserve officer training corps)? They were playing volleyball and having the grandest time. I kept swimming and having fun with my troop while my scoutmasters were chatting with this one sergeant (I think that was his rank) who accompanied the supposed cadets. After spending some time swimming, we were changing in the locker room when a couple of the older cadets asked me to get some candy from a vending machine for them. I wasn't sure why they couldn't accomplish such a simple task themselves but I still got them what they wanted. After I got done changing, I told one of the scout masters about the weird task the cadets set for me only to be told:
"Oh, they aren't ROTC, they juvenile delinquents. They're not suppose to have any outside food. I'll tel the sergeant about what they did"
And when we were walking through the parking lot to our cars, there was different sergeant ordering the delinquents onto a bus (probably yelling at them?). And when we drove off I asked what would happen to them, my scoutmaster replied saying the sergeant was going to punish them
And when we drove off I witnessed a bunch of dull, buzzed heads looking out a bus window.
Sorry for the long story, it was years ago and it's what I remember, these quotes aren't verbatim but accurate on what happened.
And as for the other time we went to Fort Knox, years later, around 2012 or so. The Patton Museum had liquidated their museum floor of tanks and had a large collection of pieces relating to the history of the US Army and General Patton's life. Including his infamous ivory handled revolvers. Afterwards we toured the base's main airfield firehouse which had this massive firefighting vehicle called the Striker, made by Oshkosh:
link for the curious:
http://www.oshkoshairport.com/arfftruck ... triker4500
And after that we got to go in an office and talk to a couple of air force guys (yeah, I said Air force) who were meteorologist tracking weather for the airfield. And touring with us was an Apache helicopter pilot who was with his wife and young child. He then took us to his Apache and talked about it.
Sorry for the wall of text, just wanted to share a couple stories I had to share.