San Diego

Alpine Man Makes Navy Tribute Museum His Passion Project

Surprisingly, the museum's architect never served a day in uniform.

The greatest military museum you've never heard of might be just a short drive away from San Diego.

Its location is surprising and its architect is, too, but it’s as necessary to the preservation of history as any museum out there.

Terry Ulmer of Alpine wanted to do something for veterans and the survivors of Pearl Harbor, so he built a to-scale replica of USS Terry’s pilot house on his property.

You can stand at the helm, flip on aircraft warning lights and read wind and sea gauges. It even has a water-tight door. Some say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Ulmer might agree.

“I wanted to do something for these great men,” Ulmer said. “I just can’t do enough for them.”

The life-size tribute turned out to be just the beginning of Ulmer’s passion project. He’s got replica surface to air missiles positioned on his property, too, and has plans to build a submarine.

“This is a Mark 10 twin-arm missile launcher,” Ulmer said, describing his one-of-a-kind home defense system. “That's how we roll here in Alpine.”

Ulmer painted "Neighborhood watch" on the side of it, because, why not?

“I change the direction every day to keep the neighbors guessing,” he said.

And when tensions between the United States and North Korea began to rise, Ulmer felt it necessary to add another piece of replica equipment to his yard – Chrysler’s Red Stone Rocket, an American Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) in service in the 50s and 60s.

“I had to step up, you know, there was all this talk about this guy in North Korea,” he joked.

The ICBM is close to his heart for another reason -- Ulmer also maintains a pristine Mopar collection that includes several muscle cars produced by Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth, and Jeep. He calls his home Mopar Ranch.

Oddly enough, Ulmer never served a day in uniform. But he did build Navy ships for 37 years at the Long Beach shipyards where he collected a lot of the artifacts he’s used to build his models.

The point of it all isn’t so that passersby think Ulmer runs an amusement park. It’s so he can honor the Navy and pay respect to who he calls our country’s greatest generation.

Ulmer regularly hosts military veterans and Pearl Harbor survivors for parties, but knows he has many more to show and less and less time to do it each day.

“I’m running out of time because they’re running out of time,’ he said.

Ulmer hopes to get started on his submarine this year.

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