After a restful stop in Paducah, KY...


...we made our way to Nauvoo, IL. Our route took us straight through St. Louis and we decided to make a stop at the Arch. It was HOT and the lines were long, but we all really enjoyed it.










Here we are at the top of the arch





Going down!

Bye St. Louis, it was fun!

No, I'm not getting a tattoo.

Tattoo is the name of the show that Dan will be performing in as part of his first TDY with the 8th army band. They are traveling to Wonju, South Korea and will be away for a week (and next week at that! They're putting him to work right away). Here's a few pictures from a website I found.

Home > Festivals > Wonju Tattoo

Wonju Tattoo Period : September Annually Location : Wonju Tattoo Performance Hall, Youth Plaza, Downtown Host, Supervisor : Wonju, Wonju Tattoo Tel : 033-737-5981 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 033-737-5981 end_of_the_skype_highlighting Homepage : http://www.wonjutattoo.com Introduction Wonju Tattoo is a global military band festival that was created as part of the New Millennium Project in 2000. Through the “World Peace Fanfare” of 2000 and 2002, the uniqueness and importance as a cultural project of military brands were recognized. Thus, in June 2003, it was officially approved as an international event by the government and became the nation’s only military band festival. Origin of Tattoo The word ‘tattoo’ first originated by innkeepers in countries such as the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th century. When it became time to close doors to their shop, the drum and fife band of the local army would begin marching and they yelled this while the music played to tell people to go to their place of lodging. When the music began to play, the innkeeper would say 'Doe den tap toe' (Close your bottle caps!) It seems that there was a curfew for pubs in the Netherlands at the time. However, clocks were not readily available at the time so the drum and fife band would march around and play music to tell people that it was time to close down. The innkeeper would yell 'Doe den tap toe' along with the music. The word ‘tattoo’, which originated from 'tap toe' has now become a word that signifies the marching of army bands. What is Wonju Tattoo? Wonju Tattoo’s pronunciation was slightly changed to fit the Korean language.

The final day of Dan's training at 1RC included a trip to the Korean War Memorial. It's the 60th anniversary of the Korean War and of our involvement here in South Korea. It was a neat museum, but we didn't get to see all of it due to tired kids, parents and we only had about 2 hours to tour it before Dan had to report back. I'm sure we'll go back!

On the grounds of the museum are lots of war planes and ships.

Here are Dan and Cade coming down from looking inside a B52 cockpit


This is the statue at the entrance to the museum.


An ancient battle ship. It's really a small ship considering its purpose, not sure I'd want to be in battle while on it!

Instruments found in the aftermath of the war

The museum was full of life-like depictions of different battles. Kinda gory, kinda cool.

A medic's helmet

Raising the South Korean Flag

Dan putting his foot over the 38th parallel... at least in the museum. We'll have to make a trip up to the DMZ in order to do it for real

Read this caption and then check out the statue picture following it



Now that's what I'm talking about!


The lower level was dedicated to war history in general. There were really neat displays of weapons and uniforms used throughout time.

I loved this gun powder flask. If I had to carry one, this would be it






And last, but not least, the righteous swords!!