Johnny Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force on July 7, 1950. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and technical training at Brooks Air Force Base (both in San Antonio, TX), he was assigned to be a Morse Code Intercept Operator at Landsberg Air Base near Penzig, Germany. Cash was the first radio operator to pick up the news of the death of Joseph Stalin.

While at Landsberg, J.C. started his first band, The Landsberg Barbarians. After Cash was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant on July 3, 1954, he returned to Texas.

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In June 1965, Johnny Cash's truck caught fire from an overheated wheel bearing, triggering a forest fire that burnt 508 acres in Los Padres National Forest in California.

When the judge asked Cash why he did it, Cash said, "I didn't do it, my truck did, and it's dead, so you can't question it."

There is an internet rumor that the burning foliage off three mountains killed 49 of the refuge's 53 endangered condors, which would represent half the entire population. However, snopes.com makes an excellent point that 580 acres is around one square mile, and that breeding pairs of condors defend around 20 square miles, so 49 condors in that area doesn't make much sense.

Either way, Cash eventually settled the case and paid $82,001.

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Ira Hayes was a Pima Native American and a US Marine during World War II. The Pima Indian Reservation struggled to grow successful crops in Arizona after the government diverted most of the water supply, and Ira joined the Marines to be able to send money home to his family.

On February 19, 1945, Hayes was part of the 5th Marine Division that landed on Iwo Jima. On February 23, 1945, he was one of the five men portrayed in the iconic picture of Marines raising the second American flag on Suribachi (Ira is the one in back with the outstretched fingers).

Hayes became a celebrity because of the photo. He was pulled out of combat and put on a Bond Tour to raise money for the war. He constantly deferred attention to his fallen comrades, but starred in the John Wayne film, Sands of Iwo Jima as himself.

Ira Hayes accumulated 52 arrests for public drunkenness in the ensuing years. In 1955, he died in a ditch of alcohol poisoning and exposure.

A folk song, "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" was written by Peter La Farge. The song was covered by Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash (Cash's version went to #3 of the Billboard charts).

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Scheduled to open up in the summer of 2012 at a former rug store, the Johnny Cash Museum will feature 18,000 square feet of memorabilia, interactive exhibits and a 250-seat auditorium.

Funded by long-time Johnny Cash friends and co-hosts of The Johnny Cash Radio Hour, Bill and Shannon Miller state that some of the artifacts will come from the defunct House of Cash (closed 1999), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Cash's Hendersonville home.

Nashville-based Griffin Technologies will provide the interactive displays and iPad applications. The couple hopes to keep ticket prices around $13.

No firm opening date has been set, so I guess it's wait and see if it really happens.

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In 1968, Johnny Cash had hit rock bottom. Substance abuse had shattered his life, and he decided to end it all in Nickajack Cave. Crawling as far as he could into the recesses of the cave until his flashlight gave out, Cash curled up and waited to die.

As he put it: "The absolute lack of light was appropriate, for at that moment I was as far from God as I have ever been. My separation from Him, the deepest and most ravaging of the various kinds of loneliness I’d felt over the years, seemed finally complete.”

Then something changed for Cash. “I felt something very powerful start to happen to me, a sensation of utter peace, clarity and sobriety... There in Nickajack Cave I became conscious of a very clear, simple idea: I was not in charge of my own destiny... I was going to die at God’s time, not mine.”

Today, Nickajack Cave is a protected wildlife refuge for the endangered gray bat. There is an observation deck to view the bats leaving to feed at dusk.

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