Dragonsmans has been a place I have wanted to go for two years. It is right here just outside Colorado Springs. A massive compound and history museum, where you have six shooting ranges, dirt track , paintball area, moto cross track, but most important, most likely the largest privately owned military museum in the country, just under 100,000 square feet in size. The Museum is divided into rooms, large rooms, he has rev war room, civil war room, WWI, WWII, divided into ,Russian, Nazi, Jap, British, American rooms, Korea, Vietnam, Irag, Afganistan room. Then there’s the Normandy beach head room, Battle of the Bulge room, radio room, nurses room. Vehicle room which has 152 operating vehicles from staff cars to jeeps to armored half tracks, bomb trucks to tanks. Every one of which is road worthy and plated. Medal of honor room has fifty two men with their picture, uniform and medal presented. The museum also has 1500 manikins dressed in uniforms, and period attire. 3000 American flags some of which are over 150 years old, 5000 helmets of all kinds, millions of rounds of live ammunition all over. Grenades, rockets, mortars, all live laying everywhere. Over 2000, firearms from pistols, rifle’s, light, and heavy machine guns all displayed as if ready to fight. Remember everything in the museum is authentic ,no fake stuff. Then after all that you go to the hot rod room, forty five hotrods are all over, all run and are street legal. There’s more, you then proceed to the 50’s and 60’s room, loaded with about 152 old gas pumps, juke boxes, coke machines, pedal cars, bikes, my banana seat bike was there. 500 lunch box’s, vintage shoes, it’s endless. And to top it off an Elvis room, loaded with everything and anything to do with Elvis, who is still alive. WOW I think that’s it. Tours are given three times a week, each tour is two hours long, and is $20.00 a person. We went Friday Morning and then decided to go back Sunday Morning, there were over 100 people in each tour. We hung back on Sunday to see things we did not see the first time, you could spend a week in here and not see everything.

WHO IS DRAGONMAN!!!!

He is 76 years old, born in Brooklyn area, served in Vietnam in 1965 and 66 guarding troop transports through the area. Opened a machine shop, and has spent millions, upon millions of dollars, over the last forty years building the museum. WHY is he called dragonman, because of the chopper he built in the early 1970’s, picture below.

As you drive up the driveway you really have no idea how big it is.

Enetering the Museum

Light and heavy duty machine guns

Baby gas masks from Belgium and France during WWII, the whole baby was put inside, these are the only two in any museum in the world. On the right is every gas mask the U. S. has made.

The canisters above are Zyklon B gas used in the death camps. Dragonman has 52 unopened and full canisters. After about 300 people took there showers, they went to the next room, where on top of the roofs, Germans would pour the crystals down the chute. Once exposed to air, they vaporize and within two minutes everyone was dead. in one day they could kill up to 16,000 people using this method. He had these shipped over regular mail in 1990 from another museum in Germany. Try that today. On the right are actual death camp uniforms brought home after the war by survivors. Then donated to the museum.

On the left Dragonman is holding a cyanide capsule for German officers. Housed in a small brass tube, a smaller glass tube slid out, was put in your mouth and bit into, two minutes later your dead. He has two of these. On the right is the Japanese family pack version, just small glass tubes, there always was enough for every soldier, as they would rather die than surrender.

The photos above are from the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Dragmans father’s best friend served aboard the USS Maryland as a photographer, and took 35 pictures that day. They were never published or are in any history books. Upon his death in 2012 Dragman received all 35 rare photos of the bombing.

WWI pack horse for the Calvary, tons of equipment. On the right is a WWI troop, munitions truck, notice the wood wheels and solid rubber tires. This is the only one in existence and runs great. Used extensively it had one drawback, every time it went up hill it had to be towed by a team of horses. WHY, no fuel pump, not invented yet, . It was gravity fed.

Melissa with her 8th great uncle, John Adams

Part of Saddoms car after it was blown up. Right is a typical suicide bomber.

IT GOES ON AND ON

Coffin car and dragster

I had a banana seat bike just like the one on the right, rode it till the wheels fell off.

ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

Thank you, Thank you, very much