Military Re-enacting.

Do we have any re-enactors out there? Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam?

Just curious to find out if there are more nut-jobs like me...

Are there really people that reenact wars besides the Civil War? I'm not trying to be an ass, I'm genuinely curious.

Absolutely!

I, myself, do WWII.

Last big one that I was at had about 2000 people in uniform. Vehicles, motorcycles, tanks, jeeps, halftracks, etc...

It is an absolute blast!

My ex does, and so does my kid. Norman/Viking era, IIRC.

is this type of activity used to figure out what went wrong, and then travel back in time and use that knowledge to change the course of history?

Yea, to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that the next leap...will be the leap home.

Are there people who seriously re-enact the Vietnam war? That sounds like it could have the potential to dredge up a lot of bad memories for some folks.

I was thinking the same thing.
It just makes no sense to me ... WWII either, really.

Civil War reenactments I can understand, because you can actually go to places like Gettysburg or wherever ... but Vietnam? Not so much.

Yeah, not exactly the most glamorous war to pick. Might as well reenact the first few years of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Or the Bay of Pigs "invasion."

These two posts are hilarious.

Here's what little I know about the WWII re-enactors . The Reading airport has one big weekend each summer when they have several planes from the era fly in for a show . I know one thing you can do is pay for a ride over the airport area in a couple of the planes there , one usually is a B-52 bomber . And there are folks doing the re-enacting thing there too , but I think for the most part it's entertainment based . Music , dancing , stuff like that . I did read something about them having a small area set aside with bombed out looking buildings & I guess they sort of do a war games type of thing there , but I have no idea how they play those out . Maybe like the civil war folks do on the battle field . I haven't actually gone to it as it draws a ton of people & I hate crowds .

uhhh..the B-52 wasn't a WWII plane. Although my dad flew one in vietnam. I'm not sure if that's what you were saying or not. The biggest bomber used in WWII was the B-29 and that was near the end of the war...the B-24 was the workhorse though most of the war for bombers.

I like re-enacting WW3 ,or imaging what the aftermath will be like.....

You should draw it with stick figures.

The plane that you are referring to is the B-25 'Briefing Time'. It is owned by the Mid Atlantic Air Museum, which hosts the WWII weekend show (first weekend of June every year).

They do do a very small demonstration re-enactment there each year. The demo is usually hosted by the Grossdeutchland (Greater Germany) re-enacting group.

As for the 'Why?' of re-enacting WWII era battles, for most of us it is an era of history that holds a lot of interest. It was the last time that almost the entire world came together to either fight a common enemy (the Allied Powers), or to unify and try and change the world into their own image (the Axis Powers). It is an amazing period that this world will never see again, and immersing yourself in it is our way of trying to understand what it was like to live in that time.

When we go out to a re-enactment, it is total immersion. No modern conveniences (cell phones, laptops, etc...). We try to be as historically accurate as is possible, using only things that were available at the time.

Those out there that do re-enacting will understand what I mean, but there may be some of you out there that are curious. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Seriously! and it's not like there were loads of actual battles. A lot of it was guerrilla warfare, firebombing, and dumping loads of that agent orange bullshit in the jungle.

Yeah , wasn't sure about the plane , as I'm not into it like some folks are . Figured someone would correct it , thanks for not being assholes about it

I never would be. Wasn't really correcting anyway, more like clarifying.





As for the Vietnam re-enacting, yes it does go on, but it isn't nearly as common as Civil War or WWII re-enacting.

I have found that a lot of people do it as a way to connect with family members who were there. It starts out with a lot of reading, and getting a better understanding of events and mindsets and the world at that time, and it kind of evolves from there (I find that that is pretty true of all areas and eras of re-enacting).

For me, I have always been interested in the '39-'45 time frame. The world was an incredible place on the homefront as well as the battlefront. Not to mention that technological advancement in those six years was absolutely mindblowing!

I had family who fought for both the Allies and for the Axis, so I was bound to be screwed up from the start! LOL

already did...

People already do "post apocolyptic" and future scenarios...

maybe they have different planes to ride up there. my father goes to that show in reading and has taken a few rides in a b-17 flying fortress (the one with the bubble turrets). i think its owned by some guy as opposed to the museum.

aaaah man "post apocolyptic" re-renacting sounds awesome

mutants vs the survivors

Can you re-enact something that hasn't happened? Isn't that just acting?

It's like time travel future past tense or something. Totally complicated grammatics.

There is a private group called The Collins Foundation that has several planes, including a B-25, a B-17, and the only Flying B-24 Liberator in the world. I've met the husband and wife that run the foundation (and fly the planes)... really nice couple.