Being a professional photographer and long time volunteer at the Patton Museum I have many fond memories and more than a few photographs of my time there that I would like to share.

Beyond this, these photos may hopefully serve as reference to the many modeling projects represented on the Armorama site.






Major Steve Fixler (Ret.) on left and Kenneth Johns on right.

CALFAX 2003 - Ft. Knox, Kentucky

Love the pics, thanks and please post more if you have them

Got lots more, will do. Did not know if anyone would care or be interested. Thank you for your service. Mike

Robert Cartwright; Commander, John McKeating; Driver


Tyler Reid: Commander

Then and now!

Sherman *************************** Abrams -- Main Battle Tanks


Bradley ****************************** Stuart -- Rapid Scout/Recon Vehicles

In the days when the Patton was still the home of the Armor Museum it possessed a very dedicated and active group of volunteers as well as a full-time, two man restoration staff. A large majority of the equipment on display as well as many of the AFV's in storage, both US and Axis had been restored to running condition by this dedicated group.

Twice a year on Memorial Day and the 4th of July, the Museum would sponsor a very popular weekend long reenactment that would draw additional armor and soft skin vehicles from around the eastern United States.

Additionally the Curator, Charles Lemons would host a monthly "vehicle operation day" where one vehicle would be taken out of the Museum and operated on a gravel track behind the main Museum building to the delight of the Museum visitors. Many visitors expressed their feelings by saying that the most impressive thing was to see a vehicle on display inside the Museum actually fired up and driven out to perform this exercise.

The Patton Museum was, to say the least, an ACTIVE, vibrant example of what is possible in bringing history to life in the museum environment.

Michael Koenig
165th Signal Photo Reenactor Company
& Patton Museum Volunteer

Article showing more of my Patton event photos, on the 88mm Flak can be viewed on the AchtungPanzer.com website at:

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/88mm-flak-series-flugabwehrkanone.htm




This weapon was part of the Keisler Fire Arms Collection at the time.

These photos are from the very first Patton reenactment I ever attended in 1999.

Again some of the great stuff I got to see at my very first Patton reenactment, 1999.

Sd.Kfz. 2

Thanks for the pics, I have enjoyed looking.

Mark

My pleasure Mark

Sd.Kfz. 10 - One ton (towing capacity) D7 Halftrack:

is that a minigun on the top of that one sherman? lol

That device on the 50 cal. took some getting used to on my part as well; that is the BLANK ADAPTOR for the 50! It is anchored to the receiver body at the rear of the barrel and then three heavy rods extend forward to hold the pressure restrictor on to the front of the barrel. (I considered Photoshopping those rods out but thought better of it - perhaps I should go back and do that.)

I was firing this rig off one of the Shermans one time and unfortunately we had gotten hold of some overly "hot" blank reloads. The rear bracket of the blank adaptor shattered and the entire adaptor went flying forward about fourty feet in front of the tank!

Fortunately the Patton had a wise safety policy that no one could fire off any weapon if someone was standing anywhere near the front of the tank. (And we were only allowed to fire FORWARD!) All volunteers were required to retake the Museum safety training course once a year and to be re-certified on any vehicle they had been trained to operate or be in.

Mike,

I will concur that the Patton Museum Volunteers were on top of things. I was at Knox from 2000-2002 and got great access to the collection via the late Duane Klug, who I worked with at Force Developement. I was real sorry to see the collection move from Ft Knox to Ft Benning.

Hopefully, the locals around Benning can establish a similar group of volunteers.

John

It took me a while to figure out from the title what this might be. I love the B&W. Keep it up!