3D walk-through of the museum and 200-acre memorial park surrounding it. The park will include dozens of monuments and a World War II street, where visitors can return to the 1940s and see how soldiers lived and worked. There'll be a IMAX theater on the site, as well as several simulator attractions for children of all ages. Runtime for the video is 9 minutes and 11 seconds.

The latest in a series of military history coffee table books is now available in all major retail book outlets and on their internet web sites, according to the book's sponsor, the National Infantry Association.

From the 1775 battle at Lexington Green to the Global War on Terrorism, this book profiles the courageous history of the American Infantry Soldier. Written by an outstanding team, including historians and distinguished retired Army officers, and with Major General (Retired) Jerry A. White (former Ft. Benning Commander and current President of the National Infantry Association) as Senior Editor, US Army Infantry presents stories of the Infantry experience as well as the legendary heroes in its ranks.

Essays on the Infantry's history and today's Soldiers focus in particular on the people who fight the battles. Full-color and vintage photography, portraits, recruiting posters and historically inspired paintings breathe life into these stories.
Local contributors include Colonel (Retired) Ralph Puckett, Colonel (Retired) Bob Simpson, and journalist Richard Hyatt. General (Retired) Colin Powell wrote the foreword and said, "This is the only book I know that encompasses the entire experience of an American Infantryman -from training to combat to home life."
The book is sponsored by the National Infantry Association, published by Rizzoli International and distributed by Random House.

The National Infantry Foundation has received a donation of $1 million from AT&T Inc. for construction of the new National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center at Patriot Park in Columbus, Georgia. The gift was presented by AT&T Georgia Regional Manager Terry Smith at a check presentation ceremony at the site of the new museum.

Major General (Retired) Jerry White, President and Chairman of the National Infantry Foundation remarked that AT&T's gift testifies to the national scope of the museum project.

"This gift not only affirms AT&T's commitment to the communities it serves, it demonstrates the company's allegiance to soldiers and their families, and the sacrifices they make for our freedom," said MG (Ret.) Jerry White, President and Chairman of the National Infantry Foundation. "I'm proud to have AT&T partnering with us on this project that will bring long overdue recognition of the Infantry."

Following the ceremony, AT&T executives took a hard hat tour of the museum, now about halfway complete.

The 190,000-square-foot museum will tell the story of the Infantry from the time of its inception in 1775 to the present. In addition to its exhibits there will be a 3-D IMAX theater, simulator experiences, a restaurant and gift store. On the 200-acre Patriot Park campus there will be a World War II Company Street, Memorial Walk of Honor and seven-acre parade field for Infantry school graduations.

AT&T has been dedicated to supporting military personnel, both active and retired, for more than 85 years. Currently, its 1,800 company-owned retail stores are collecting used cell phones. Proceeds from the sale of the recycled phones go to purchasing prepaid phone cards for military personnel stationed overseas.

Last time she walked through the barracks her dad built, she was a little girl. But Sally Foley remembered them well when she recently visited the recreated World War II Company Street with her daughter, Ann Hughston.

Sally's father, Charlie Frank Williams, owned a construction company at the start of World War II when the Army needed temporary housing and headquarters for the thousands of troops heading to Fort Benning.

Williams Construction won the bid and gathered workers from all across the southeast to turn a million board feet of yellow pine into buildings in 90 days. The project gave a shot to the city's ailing economy.

Williams Construction went on to manage many other projects at Fort Benning. Most of the so-called World War II wood was torn down in the mid-90s, having long outlasted their predicted usefulness. Seven of those buildings -- a chapel, barracks, supply room, orderly room, mess hall and the headquarters and sleeping quarters used by General George S. Patton before his deployment to North Africa -- were saved, and they now line Patriot Park's authentic World War II Company Street.

When complete, each building will be open to visitors and outfitted as it was in the 1940s. They also will serve as a testament to the dedication and professionalism of the local community that answered the call to duty in their own way.

Auditions are being held this month for soldiers who would like to become a part of history in the new National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center at Patriot Park.
The new museum's exhibit designers will use the soldiers as models for life-size figures representing Infantrymen from pre-Revolutionary times to the present. The so-called "life casting" will be done by Brooklyn, New York-based StudioEIS, a world famous sculpture studio. In life casting, a mold is made using plaster bandage similar to what is used to set broken bones. With paint and costume, it then transforms into a highly realistic full body sculpture.
Soldiers of all sizes and ethnic backgrounds between the ages of 18 and 35 are being photographed and measured, and those selected will travel to New York City for a modeling session.
To see cast figures from other StudioEIS projects, visit http://www.studioeis.com/ or http://www.ccadesign.com/.

Batson-Cook work crews celebrated a big day September 14. They placed a 43,000-pound steel dome atop the rotunda in which the Follow Me soldier will stand at the entrance to the new museum.

The so-called Topping Off ceremony signifies the placement of the highest piece of steel in a major construction project.

Before the dome was lifted, Batson-Cook project executive Paul Meadows and National Infantry Foundation President MG Jerry White thanked the crowd of tradesmen for their hard work and dedication to the project. Workers, architects, engineers and VIPs all had the chance to sign their names on the last pieces of steel to be erected.

It took a 220-ton crane to lift the 70-foot diameter dome. It stands 40-feet above the museum's entrance.

Construction on the site began in January and is keeping to schedule. The museum is expected to open in November 2008.

The renderings are impressive on their own. But the scale and grandeur of the new National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center at Patriot Park nearly comes to life in a new architectural scale model unveiled this week.

The new National Infantry Museum's first artifact has moved in. It's a 25-ton Bradley M2A2, the fighting vehicle that carried Infantrymen across thousands of miles of desert in both the Gulf War and Iraqi Freedom.

A crane lifted the Bradley more than 20-feet into the air, and gently lowered it to its place of honor on the Last 100 Yards ramp, the new museum's signature exhibit. The walls of the museum will be built around it.

The National Infantry Foundation is pleased to announce that Synovus, Columbus Bank and Trust (CB&T) and TSYS through the Synovus Foundation have jointly become one of the largest non-governmental supporters of the new National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center at Patriot Park with a donation of $1.25 million.

The National Infantry Foundation has received a gift of $1 million from locally-headquartered Aflac Foundation for construction of the new National Infantry Museum and Heritage Park.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded a $1 million grant for construction of the new National Infantry Museum and Heritage Park. The chapel on the site’s World War II Street will be dedicated to the Knight family’s legacy of both philanthropy and military service.