Posted on 07/15/2011 10:33:09 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
It's tanks for the memories at the Fort Snelling Military Museum.
The volunteer-run organization, which has restored dozens of vintage tanks, jeeps, armored cars, trucks, halftracks and other American military vehicles, must shut down because the U.S. government wants to move the collection to other Army museums around the country.
The museum, which is on Army Reserve land next to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, is scheduled to close in September.
"Basically, it's a victim of the Base Realignment and Closure act," said Nick Goodwin, museum director and a chief warrant officer with the Army Reserve.
All the vehicles in the museum are the property of the Defense Department, and the facility was operated under the auspices of the Army Reserve's 88th Regional Support Command and the Army's Center of Military History.
When the reserve unit's operations were transferred from Fort Snelling to the 88th Regional Readiness Command at Fort McCoy, Wis., about 1-1/2 years ago, the museum's days were numbered.
"It's a political decision. The Army is redeploying its assets to other locations," said museum vice president Ron Corradin.
The volunteers "feel the same way I do," Goodwin said. "They're upset. They don't want to see the museum closed. They put a lot of blood and sweat into it."
"We're all disappointed the decision was made to do this," said former museum president John Hutterer.
The museum was started in 1997. It has amassed a collection of about 70 vehicles, dating from World War II to the first Gulf War.
Some of the vehicles were rusted wrecks salvaged from Army storage facilities or rescued from duty as targets on firing ranges. Others still bore the scars of combat.
About 25 were restored to working order by volunteers who put more than 100,000 working hours into the projects. They drove the vehicles in public demonstrations, one of the few armored warfare museums in the world that were able to do that, Goodwin said.
"Especially with the tanks, to see them go by with the ground shaking and the smoke and the noise," he said.
The museum plans to go out with a bang, literally, today at its last open house from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
There will be demonstration shows at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in which museum volunteers plan for the last time to drive everything that runs.
Each show will start with the firing of a 75 mm howitzer and will end with an M60A3 Patton tank running over and crushing a junked car.
A Dodge minivan and a Dodge sedan have been lined up to be victims, the last of nearly 50 cars the tank has gotten to crush in its career as a museum artifact.
"We will be going out on a high note," Corradin said. "We're going to put on the best show we can."
The museum is at the Army Reserve gate near Hiawatha Avenue and Minnesota 62. Admission and parking at the open house is free. For information, go to fsmm.org.
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A shame.
A great shame.
A shame
BRAC affects museums, too? That is absolute BS.
Why don’t they just sell or raffle those nice toys? With the coming revolution, every ammo to be used against libs..er, I mean “domestic enemies” is a blessing.
“All the vehicles in the museum are the property of the Defense Department”
No need to complain about the blood, sweat, and tears....the volunteers were working on someone elses stuff.
I’ve been to the museum and it is fantastic. Hate to see it go.
The Signal Corps Museum at Fort Monmouth NJ and the Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground MD are both moving also because of BRAC.
They’ll get good homes, and people who’ll take just as good care of them.
My husband, son and I just returned home from the event. It was well worth the trip. Got lots of pics of all the vehicles including the M-60 tank crushing the Caravan. After the museum event, the parachute exercise by SOCOM at the Air Nat’l. Guard field was incredible. I stand in awe of all of our troops and grateful for their service to America. Thanks Hunton Peck for posting this thread. It was something I might have otherwise missed.
Glad y’all could make it! I was hoping when I posted it that it might help fill out someone’s weekend. Can you post a pic or two?
I’ll have to put my boys onto that job. It may take awhile. We’re just reviewing the photos now. There’s a great one of the Caravan’s grill sticking out from under the tank. :)
Crunch! LOL There were really quite a few people there today but the stands were empty when this picture was taken. We spent A LOT of time there.
Very cool! If they sold rides on those things, it might’ve offset much of the cost of running the museum. I’d have paid for the privilege of crushing, say, a Prius. But then, there’d be the liability premiums....
Thanks for posting the pics!
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