For the next several years Armor School artifacts will be kept out of the public eye. The nearly 300 major artifacts like tanks and fighting vehicles, are finding a home before they're given a facelift.
Len Dyer is the U.S. Army’s Director of Armor and Cavalry Collection. He said, “If it is a historic vehicle that’s got prominence to a unit and so forth, we treat it like an archeological dig. We literally take it step by step in the process.”
The first week in August is the first time Dyer's entire staff has been at Fort Benning. They are sifting through where everything will sit until the new armor museum is built.
Out of the 280 major artifacts that have been moved from Fort Knox to Fort Benning half of them are at the Transportation Management Pool. The other tanks are being stored on Sand Hill.
Fundraising for the new museum has just begun, and so has the museum's layout. Stephen Allie is the Chief of the Museum division at Fort Benning. He said, “This is the Armor/Cavalry museum so it will actually go back to the early days of cavalry and then into armor. So it's going to be a knock out museum.”
The new facility will also house micro items like guns. For now that gear is being stored in the basement of the National Infantry Museum. A few foreign vehicles will call Fort Benning’s Armor Museum home when it's complete.
Dyer said, “Right now the biggest thing is getting the vehicles in storage to protect them from the environment. Then we will start working on preservation.”
The handful of Armor School tanks that will be visible to the public before the museum grand opening are already placed at various checkpoints. For now the crew will stick to their motto, Fix’em Right and Keep ‘em Rollin.
Stephen Allie said the new Armor Museum will cost between $50 and $75 million. The new facility will be built behind the National Infantry Museum.
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