News 3 Special Report: Exclusive look at Armor Museum artifacts

It's not just the Armor School that is moving to our area in less than 75 days. The Army's Armor Museum will also relocate to Fort Benning.  

The Cobra King tank was photographed shortly after tankers led the Armor in Bastogne, Belgium. The Corba King now belongs to the Armor Museum.  Fort Knox Armor Museum Curator, Charles Lemons believes the vehicle is one of only 254 built. Lemons thinks the one the museum has was made in march, April, or May of 1944. But like some vehicles in battle, this one was abused by the enemy.

Lemons said, “Apparently what they did is they brought it in and realized it didn't belong even to their Army. And they pulled the engine out, and they pulled various parts from the interior out. And because the vehicle wasn't theirs, they just simply left it at the place where they stripped it.”

Lemons said through serial number, the tank was identified as the Cobra King and brought back to the United States for preservation. The exterior has been doctored, but the experts are taking precautions with the inside of the tank.

“We have done nothing to the interior. And the reason why is because the interior has combat damage and other damage from when this vehicle was knocked out in March of 1945. We don't want to damage that yet until we figure out how to preserve it,” Lemon said.

The tank, rare by name, isn't the only one of its kind left. The museum curator said, “There’s several scattered across the French country side. There are probably maybe 20 survivors. There is one in private hands out in California. There’s several out on gunnery rages. These were obsolete because they were such an odd ball vehicle the Army didn't have a use for them after the war.”

But what many may consider an even bigger gem to the Armor Museum is the T-28. The tank is one of only two produced, and the only one still in existence.

Sergeant First Class Vernon Prohaska is part of the relocation operation cell assigned to the BRAC move. Prohaska said, “The big thing about this tank is that it was a tank designed not to fight other tanks but to fight through fortifications that were built during World War two.”

The biggest appeal? It's weight, 95 tons. Some of the tons come from the extra rows of track weighing in at 15 tons a piece.

SFC Prohaska said, “What's cool about it is that the guys who designed this thing designed it in a manner that the tank itself could remove the extra sections of track from the vehicle with its own cranes and wench system.”

Prohaska said the tank proved to be too large and play too small of a role to be effective.

SFC Prohaska said, “They went away with this idea and went with the T-30s, T-34s. Those type of vehicles, heavier vehicles that we could actually put into the Cold War area of threat and concern.”

As crews began to disassemble the one of a kind piece for the move to Benning they discovered a piece of history.

“The men doing the maintenance trying to get this track off opened the boxes that hadn't been opened up since 1945 and literally found all the tools required to do this,” Prohaska said.

The Armor Museum will be filled with all types of rare vehicles. One tank was converted so soldiers could control it like a robot.

Prohaska said they will also be moving one tank that is the most popular personnel carrier. “This little camouflaged one on its side is an M113. It's probably one of the most heavily produced vehicles in the world. It's in operation with about 60 countries right now.”

Fort Benning’s Armor Museum will be full of vehicles of all shapes, sizes, and stories. It is scheduled to be completed by 2014.