NOKESVILLE, Va. — For the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne, life during World War II wasn’t easy.
For starters, each American paratrooper in the division weighed about 150 pounds, but the amount of equipment they needed to carry with them on their jumps doubled their weight even before time they climbed onto the airplane.
The equipment: guns, grenades, even a bazooka that used a dangerous electrical charge to fire its ordinance, it was a dangerous load to bear.
“When you fired this weapon with its electrical charge, it has a tendency to make the warhead blow up,” said re-enactor Robert Hubbs of Stafford.
Hubbs and many other re-enactors and living historians took questions Saturday from those who wanted to know more about what life in war is like.
They came to the Tank Farm in Nokesville, and annual demonstration featuring tanks, military trucks, guns, and several other working artifacts that will make up the Americans in Wartime Museum slated to be built behind a Kmart store in Dale City.
The annual event is designed to showcase the belongings of the museum, as well demonstrate the hardware’s military might.
There were also live shows on Saturday displaying the talents of military working dogs from Fort Belvoir, as well as simulated gunfire, and a flamethrower, which showed first hand the horrors of warfighting, in addition to the re-enactors and living historians.
The event also serves as an opportunity to raise funds of the museum to fund construction of the planned facility on a 70-acre site along Interstate 95 in Dale City.
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