found this track thingy any ideas??

[vettes]

Whats the story there?

That might be one of the museum pieces dumped in the early 70's by the APG museum (along with the only front wheel drive motorcycle) for all we know at this point.

 

[SteveKuhn]

Short answer: Budget cuts. Lots of pieces in this search and some wonderful videos on YouTube:

http://www.google.com/#q=aberdeen+proving+ground+museum+closing

Steve

 

[wreckerman893]

I visited the Aberdeen Museum several times during my military career. The fact that they closed it and scattered the collection to the four winds speaks volumes about how the powers that be spend our money. It was a fantastic museum.
I just found out that "Atomic Annie" has been moved to the Anniston Army Depot about 30 miles from me. I have a friend that works there and is going to try to get me in to see some of the other stuff they have out there.

 

[battlecr]

Atomic Annie, I had a model of that when I was kid, very cool machine, glad it survived.

Don G.

 

[Super Warrantman]

It would be cool if you could manage to get some pictures of Atomic Annie.

 

[Super Warrantman]

Short answer: Budget cuts. Lots of pieces in this search and some wonderful videos on YouTube:

http://www.google.com/#q=aberdeen+proving+ground+museum+closing

Steve

Budget cuts will do it every time. It's not only Aberdeen that is suffering either. I was at FT Benning last year and was trying to find where the Army had moved all the armor that they had taken away from FT Knox when they decided to combine the Armor school with the Infantry School and I found the armor museum had been relegated to a small room in the Infantry Museum. (Or at least the smaller bits that could be displayed indoors) It wasn't open yet though because there was no money to pay someone to organize it and set it up. Lord knows where the tanks have been stuck; probably in a motor pool somewhere at FT Benning.

 

[Carlo]

What else is parked in the yard with the Holt/Cat? Looks like some others goodies are there!!

 

[CARNAC]

Whats the story there?

I use to do volunteer tour guide service there and was trained by none other than Dr Atwater. In my former life I was stationed in the area and would drive over to help out as the backup.

We had some discussions about what museum stuff was 'behind the fence' and this brought up the discussion about a Vietnam Era scrap drive that resulted in a chunk of the collection (not sure if they were actually in the museum holding or just on the base). Items specifically mentioned were Pz I Ausf C (had a 15mm auto cannon), Pz I Ausf F (twin MG), the only surviving front wheel drive motorcycle of which I saw a picture of on the internet after capture.

Some items were also scrapped in the 40's to support WWII and this included one of the surviving WWI German A7V's (Nixie II if I recall).

As a side note, one of two Schwimmwagens were auctioned off and the guy that bought one of them used it for duck hunting until the brakes failed. It was parked in a barn for...a bunch of years. Around 2007 or so I ran into a guy in Aberdeen that bought it for peanuts from the elderly duck hunter and was restoring it in his garage in Aberdeen. It was looking pretty darn good. I think there are some photos floating around of the auction back in the 40's of these enemy vehicles.

 

[Blackhills]

any new updates?