Top 5 American Military Museums

1. General George Patton Museum
The Patton Museum
P.O. Box 208
Ft. Knox, Kentucky 40121-020
www.generalpatton.org
This museum is one of the largest in the U.S. Army system, as well as being in possession of one of the largest collections of armored vehicles in the world. This collection is one display both inside and outside the museum. The main focus of the museum is on the history and development of armored warfare, but it also has a permanent exhibit devoted to the famed General Patton, as well as other temporary exhibitions.

2. National Museum of the Air Force
1100 Spaatz Street
Wright-Patterson AFB OH 45433
www.nationalmuseum.af.mil
The National Museum of the Air Force is the world's oldest museum dedicated to military aviation. It houses over 400 different aircraft and missile types on display, most of them in indoor hangars. The most recent additions to the museum include the F-117 and B-2 stealth bombers. The best part about this museum is the admission price: it's absolutely free.

3. Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum
40 Patriots Point Road
Mount Pleasant, SC
www.patriotspoint.org
Naval exhibits usually consist of ship's knick-knacks, and some will have a single warship serving either as an exhibit or as the museum itself. Patriot's Point weighs in with the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, a Coast Guard cutter, a destroyer, a submarine, 25 planes, 2 helicopters, and a river patrol boat.

4. Pima Air and Space Museum
6000 E. Valencia Rd.
Tucson, Arizona 85706
www.pimaair.org
This is the largest non-governmental air and space museum in the United States. It has 250 air and spacecraft on display, including restored examples of all the great U.S. bombers of the Second World War. The museum is also in possession of a Cold War missile silo museum, in the form of a disabled Titan II inter-continental ballistic missile in its original silo. Finally, this is the only vendor licensed to conduct tours of the famous "Air Force Boneyard" of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group.

5. U.S. Army Ordinance Museum
Aberdeen, MD
www.ordmusfound.org
This museum has an excellent collection of armored vehicles and artillery on display, both indoors, in its outdoors park, and on the roads leading to it in the larger Aberdeen Proving Grounds. The collection is almost as good as that of the Patton Museum. It includes a rare and mammoth Krupp railway cannon ("Anzio Annie"). Dr. William Atwater, who is often seen commenting as an expert on military hardware for the Discovery Channel and the History Channel, was its director until his retirement.