Patton Museum moving to Ft. Benning afterall

[B3.3T]

It was just announced the US Army will indeed be moving the Ft. Knox-based Patton Armor Museum to Ft. Benning, GA beginning Sept 2010. When the Armor Center anounced its move to Benning, it was stated the museum would stay at Ft. Know where it has been for 60 years. But they changed their minds.

 

[wreckerman893]

But they changed their minds.

When Fort McMuffin (McClellan) was closed the Chemical Corp, Military Police and Women's Army Corps (WAC) museums were moved........the reasoning is that there will be more visitors at an active duty duty base to support the museum.
Benning is now home of the Armor and Infantry branches......the new Infantry Museum is a state of the art facility (they actually built it around a Bradley Fighting Vehicle) and hopefully they will co-locate the Armor Museum there.

 

[mkcoen]

Can't say that I'm up on all the happenings in the Army these days but why in the world are they moving the Armor Center to Benning? Isn't the Infantry School there enough? Is Armor Basic and AIT now going to be at Benning too? I know I only saw part of post while I was there (Sand Hill to be specific) but do they have the range capacity for Armor training?

 

[todds112]

Seems kind of a shame to abandon all the history of Ft. Knox.

 

[papabear]

I have mixed emotions about that to todds112. I took Basic at Ft Knox and was raised about an hour from there.

Yes...there is plenty of space for the Armor School to move here to FT Benning and most of the needed ranges are under way or nearly complete. There is also plenty of room for the tanks to exercise.

B3.3T...I've been hearing for the last year that the Patton Museum was moving...then it wasn't...then it is.
Has it been officially announced then?? And by who?

Fort Benning is now called "The Maneuver Center of Excellence". I guess the concept is that Infantry and Armor should train as they fight...

 

[DUECE-COUPE]

so what will become of FT Knox?? will it close as an army base, or will it be given a new mission in the fight for freedom??

 

[mkcoen]

Fort Benning is now called "The Maneuver Center of Excellence". I guess the concept is that Infantry and Armor should train as they fight...

Well I did switch from Infantry to Armor so I guess it's all good. I can visit both museums at one spot. Now if they could just get the Wright-Pat museum down there it'd be like a military Disneyland.

 

[m16ty]

so what will become of FT Knox?? will it close as an army base, or will it be given a new mission in the fight for freedom??

If they decide to close it down I'll haul all the stuff out of that big building in the middle of the field for them .

All joking aside, I wonder what this move is going to cost John Q. Taxpayer?

 

[wreckerman893]

As I understand it they are going to move the Army Reserve records center there from St. Louis and consolidate some other directorates there.
I took basic training there twice....once in 72 and again in 84 (got out and came back in with long break in service).

 

[mckeeranger]

If they decide to close it down I'll haul all the stuff out of that big building in the middle of the field for them .

I'd be happy with just one room. Actually, just a couple of pieces of that yellow "scrap" metal they keep there would be ok.

 

[crazyplowboy]

I'd be happy with a couple bars

 

[CARNAC]

The rumor mill I heard was Knox was getting too small for Abrams manuever and ranges. The other point was the populace started getting right up next to the base and once there, started complaining about the noise.

Makes you kinda wish the Army bought up 2x the amount of land in the 1940's and before when they were building these bases.

Look at Ft McPhearson. It use to be a basic training base with ranges and everything. Next year it becomes....nothing, turned over to the city.

I guess I lost my easy visits to the Aberdeen museum and now get easy visits to these two museums. One door closes, another opens.

 

[greenjeepster]

So who is going to guard the gold or is that moving too?

Hard to believe they don't have enough room out there. I don't know what the exact acreage is out there but it has got to be 100,000 or better. Bluegrass Depot is 14000 acres and on the map it is tiny compared to Knox.

 

[wreckerman893]

The gold depository is not actually on the base but is adjacent to it on federal property.

There is a Quick Reaction Force on base ready to move to the depository if needed.

There was a story about this on the History Channel a while back.

Rumor has it that the gold was moved out of Fort Knox years ago and sold to pay the US debt......never seen any facts to back that up.

Could be the same rumor mill the black helicopter and tin hat folks get their intell from.

 

[dabtl]

The 'Cross the Rhine with dry feet' sign at the museum was done by my father's squad of MP's at Remagen. It hung at his 'office' on the bridge.

 

[saddamsnightmare]

February 13th, 2010.

Yes, the Patton Museum is moving to Fort Benning. I put in for the Curator's position, which I would love to have because of the Armor collection, and I was told the position was for accountability in preparation to the move.... I have no clue whether I made the cut, but it would be a wonderful job given my background in military history. I'm still looking for work (isn't everybody?), and given my background in museum work and as a National Park Ranger, it seems that times are hard almost everywhere in the museum industry.

It is a fact, Jack! (to borrow a Bill Murray line in Stripes)

Cheers,

Kyle F. McGrogan

 

[swbradley1]

Well I did switch from Infantry to Armor so I guess it's all good. I can visit both museums at one spot. Now if they could just get the Wright-Pat museum down there it'd be like a military Disneyland.

I hope it would be a cold day in you know where if they decided to move the National Museum away from Wright-Patterson.

Not that I go there very often it is a sense of pride in being able to live in the area with all this aviation history.

The one day I was on Ft Knox we went to the Patton Museum and it was closed. Going out on one of the ranges while the guard was having a live fire exercise with M60s (armor) more than made up for it though. Nothing like standing next to a tank when the main gun goes off.

sw

 

[mkcoen]

Nothing like standing next to a tank when the main gun goes off.

Other than being pushed back into the gunner's seat after pulling the trigger on one.

 

[swbradley1]

My Dad was a tank gunner in Korea and one of my Brother's was an M60 driver.

Obviously from my avatar I didn't get to play with anything green until I could afford to do it on my own.

sw

 

[Strykerboy]

we are takeing most of the collection of armor with when we move we are all ready hett'ing stuff down every monday i'll make take some good pic's as well as the new armor cav museum will be 3 times larger then the current patton patton museum.