01.15.10 • "I'm overwhelmed by the museum. I wish we had some way to let every American know it is here because then they would come," said Ross Perot, businessman and one-time presidential candidate, during his visit to the new National Infantry Museum.

For a major museum of national significance, the National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center, located at Fort Benning in Columbus Georgia, is off the popular tourist track, but visitation to this 60,000 square foot museum, designed by Christopher Chadbourne & Associates (CCA), has far exceeded market projections. More than 250,000 visitors attended the

museum within six months after its opening. The centerpiece to this state-of-the-art museum is The Infantry Owns the Last 100 Yards—a one hundred yard long ramp that slopes upward, along which visitors accompany Infantry Soldiers as they take the last 100 yards through two hundred years of history.

Reaction to the National Infantry Museum has been consistently admiring, and often strikes a personal chord. Writer Darby Britto reported in her blog, "The new national museum is a state of the art facility where the visitor experiences history as well as learning (about it). The opportunity to learn does not come from the exhibits alone, as good as they are. The real living history is to look into the faces of those who served as they walk through the museum. The eyes of our veterans are the most priceless collection our country has."