Questions for anyone near Aberdeen Armor museum?

Think about it, the Army has a limited budget. Choice between upgrading barracks or properly painting obsolete armor? Choice between putting in a playground in an on post school or maintaining obsolete armor?

It's not like the installation gets any tourism dollars from visitors. Maybe 1 out of 10 visitors plops a dollar into the donation bin. I've worked garrison budgets before. There's not enough money for quality of life improvements. Most vehicles are painted with scrounged paint and volunteer or volun-told labor (guys returned to Knox for desertion and awaiting administrative discharge are often on work details to paint tanks, Knox is where all Army deserters are returned to when local law enforcement happens to run across them at routine traffic stops).

I went to Aberdeen in 1979 and shot a couple of rolls of black and white with my Nikkormat.

I have to tell you that the Army was a very poor custodian of the armor, unlike a lot of the good museums in Europe, never mind the Smithsonian.

Each country was represented by an overall color and of course I don't know which, but it was perhaps light blue for France, yellow for Germany, green for Russia and white for US.

My best recollection is of a Panzer 4 or such chassis with twin Flak 88s.

Sad to see it go, but, the display even back then was really neglected and shabby.

That was part of the problem, letting folks onto the tanks (without them signing a waiver of liability upon entering the museums)... In our "modern" and oh, SO litigious society, every set of stitches little Junior got or broken arm that drunk Cousin Dave Dipsheet from Lizard Lick, KY got from swinging from the gun tube or when dropping a hatch-cover on his crank-addicted, tube-top wearin' wife's head resulted in a lawsuit the Army had to pay for in a settlement...  

Armor is dangerous, even when it's sittin' still and welded shut...  SOME Effin' civilians don't seem to GET that...   They'll climb all over it wearin' flip-flops and wife-beater shirts, baggy shorts,  and instead of making three points-of-contact at all times, will jump from turret to hull with two points of contact on their frikkin' beer, and ONE on the tank,  and then look surprised when they bust their azzes on the ground or crack their heads open on the mantlet.... 

padakr

Never went to the one at Aberdeen, but went often as a kid to the Patton Museum. I remember climbing over all kinds of vehicles outside.  Shame to hear that it is all but gone now.

Paul

Same here. At Fort Knox they let us climb all over the tanks. I should have gone one last time before they started the move. It's a shame they are gone.

Article about the Leopold moving:: http://progress-index.com/news/anzio-annie-makes-her-way-to-fort-lee-1.1079919

There's a short video on the right side of the page.

Never went to the one at Aberdeen, but went often as a kid to the Patton Museum. I remember climbing over all kinds of vehicles outside.  Shame to hear that it is all but gone now.

Paul

the doog

Man, that breaks y heart to hear that. I KNEW I should've gotten down there with a digital camera!

Well, that sucks. But I thought it was going to Fort Lee near Richmond? That would actually be great for Jenn and I to see it when it gets up and running! That's so close to her brother's house.

It says on the Wiki site that it's supposed to go into a new indoor facility? There's apparently a foundation set up for it? Anyone have any more info on that aspect?

Somebody from AMPS should write to them and ask what exactly is going on. Explain to them the value of that place to the Armor Preservation Society and to modelers and historians.

Karl, last I knew it was going to Fort Lee. The last time I was there was the Saturday before they up and moved most of their out door exhibits. If I had delayed another couple of days, there would have been nothing to see. Most of the quality pieces of armor had pink tags on them to denote which ones would be moving first. I even spoke with one of the curators (I was hoping for Dr. Atwater but was told he retired several years back) and he confirmed the move was imminent.

Whether they did finally move, I'm not sure, maybe you should check it out if its on the way...

The Armor Museum at Knox is virtually gone. All that remains open is the portion where Gen. Patton's stuff was on display and the gift shop in the front. It was renamed from the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor to the General Patton Museum. There may be 2-3 armor vehicles on display outside. Virtually 90% of the armor displayed around post is gone. Just shooting from the hip here based on my memory, but the only armor left on display around the post besides the couple pieces in front of the museum are:

• M1IP, M3A2 & M24 at the Chaffee Gate (formerly Bullion Gate)
• M48A2 x2 at the old Chaffee Gate
• M60A1 & M60A3 at the Bradenburg Gate
• M60A1 on 31W just prior to the Muldraugh hill
• M103 in Radcliff
• M48A2, M41, M47 at the Stithson traffic circle
• M4A3E8 at the PX
• M59 with red cross markings at the hospital
• M551 Sheridan at the Wilson gate
• M60A3 at Sadowski field house
• Not sure what's left down in the Disney Barracks area, but most of the basic training battalions are gone, and with them, the armor's probably been moved--Edit: M578 VTR is only vehicle left there.

Man, that breaks y heart to hear that. I KNEW I should've gotten down there with a digital camera!

Well, that sucks. But I thought it was going to Fort Lee near Richmond? That would actually be great for Jenn and I to see it when it gets up and running! That's so close to her brother's house.

It says on the Wiki site that it's supposed to go into a new indoor facility? There's apparently a foundation set up for it? Anyone have any more info on that aspect?

Somebody from AMPS should write to them and ask what exactly is going on. Explain to them the value of that place to the Armor Preservation Society and to modelers and historians.

Hey guys, where are they sending the rail gun?  

Its not all bad for everyone.  Here at Sill there have been major renovations to the FA museum as part of the BRAC funding (a part which actually makes some sense...).  They are going through piece by piece and fixing them up nice.  The ADA museum will be building a new facility here at some point, but until then they are transporting their exhibits here.  I was talking with one of the FA museum staffers about the restoration projects and he told me that the museum management army-wide had changed.  Rather than being stacked with well-meaning but restoration/preservation clueless vets and civil servants they've gone ahead and got some qualified people to fill the top jobs.  What this means for these two museums is that they are getting rid of the hideous flat grey paint schemes and putting things in their rightful colors.  They're even bringing out Atomic Annie's transport trucks from wherever they've been hiding these past few years...decades.  

I'm sorry to hear about Aberdeen, but hopefully Benning's and Knox's museums follow in Sill's mold.

The biggest problem I have is when they take a priceless tank, like the King Tiger in the Patton Museum and chop huge slices out of her to make it a cutaway, or they take the Afghan FT-17s, fix them up to operating condition, then weld them shut!  WHY!?

That is not what I have been told by a soldier friend that volunteered at Knox in the museum as a driver. But, If that be the case then I stand corrected but why on earth would they spend the money to move two well established museums? At the very least it's an enormous waste of money... not that that is anything out of the ordinary...

Karl - It is all but gone. As we speak the rail gun is being prepared for shipment. Almost nothing worth viewing is left as I understand the situation. I don't know what is in the storage areas which I went through in 2009. But unless you have an ID you cannot get there. The pure shame is most of the new museum money has been deferred so all of these treasures are going to storage yards in Benning and other sites. Most of the future revolves around rust!!

Rounds Complete!! 

Sorry K-dawg, but you are misinformed.  The equipment that was at Aberdeen has always been owned by the Army and did get funding from the US government.  Also, the Infantry Museum at Ft Benning is outside the front gate and open to the public.  You can go see the tanks there any time you like.

National Infantry Museum

Too late, it's gone except for the actually indoor museum, which isn't much. Don't even get me started on this subject... In my opinion these artifacts belong to the public. That museum  and Knox as well, got VERY little in the way of govt support and was mostly run on public and private donation yet the Army decided it would be ok for them to STEAL this public property, claim it as part of their new armor school and put it behind lock and key at Ft. Benning. If you don't have a military ID then you're SOL. There may be a new Armor museum there at some point but in this economy it won't be any time soon... I took about 1400 pictures at Aberdeen a few years ago and only got the German armor. It was an absolute treasure that's now lost in the abyss of red tape...

Ok, Down off my soap box now... that's all I got to say on the matter...