The Herald from Jasper, Indiana • 1

1 What looks like soldiers on guard Is really a platoon of uniform-clad mannequins on standby, ready to deliver a history lesson at the Indiana Military Museum, two miles ea.t of Vlncennes on Brucevllle Road. It Is currently closed for renovations, but will soon reopen. a xnn a YOU WON'T FIND A PROFESSIONAL CURATOR. YOU WON'T FIND ITEMS MARKED AND ORGANIZED IN MUSEUM FASHION. BUT YOU WILL FIND TONS OF INTERESTING MILITARY MEMORABILIA IN ABOUT EVERY CORNER OF THE INDIANA MILITARY MUSEUM IN VINCENNES.

THE COLLECTION IS A UFE-LONG LABOR OF LOVE OF OWNER JIM OSBORNE. Written by Hak Hasklns Photographed by David Pierinl The things they carried could always be. held in their hands. A letter from home. A can of tooth powder.

A dime-store novel. A pen knife. A rifle. The things that carried them were made by the hands of others. A tank.

A ship. A helicopter. A jeep. A stretcher. What they carried, and what carried them, is preserved in the Indiana Military Museum.

The museum is a numberless collection of artifacts that grew that way from the wide-eyed curiosity of a teenage boy, enamored by the lives of the veterans in whose company he was reared. One by one, Jim Osborne began to gather the things they carried: a souvenir, a photograph, a letter, a back pack, a uniform. His collection grew and grew as he left adolescence for young adulthood, and from there through college, and finally to law school until his collection was no longer a It had become something besides a pastime. Td say it passed the hobby stage about the time you haul home the first cannon, or the first vehicle. It started getting bigger and bigger, and out of hand, especially by the time you bring home the first tank." In the late 1970s, friends of Osborne encouraged him to make his impressive collection available to the public.

In the early 1980s, he and other military history enthusiasts created a not Tot profit organization, secured a pair of buildings that were alxiut to be razed, and relocated those to a piece of land about two miles east of Vincennes. The Indiana Military Museum was born. It Is filled with the things they carried, the things that carried them, the things they wore, studied, read, smoked and ate. Currently, it is closed while undergoing renovation and expansion, paid for through a Lilly Foundation grant. It is scheduled to reopen early next year.

But none of these things and there are thousands of items as varied as a model of the USS Vincennes and a primer titled "The Jap Army" explains why they had to carry them, ride on them, wear them, read them or even fire them. For a kid growing up in Jim's era. the bounty of veterans made the wars that they fought World War II and Korea a fascinating subject. "My father had bought a Civil War musket and I Please turn to the next page SOdniTrl07 i li f'i DUBOIS COUNTY, INDIANA dllll UCty -It JUlL U)LU. NOVEMBER 11, 2000.