Deterrents in Mosul, 2005

Guard, 2005

Sleeping Mechanic, 2005

High Noon, 2005

Sirocco
2005

Sgt. Hodge, 3d ID Baghdad Airport
2005

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According to the artist, Alan Archambault, Director of the Fort Lewis Military Museum,
children in Annapolis, MD, were afraid of the Yankee Zouaves who were posted to that
city during the Civil War. The uniforms were pretty outlandish by today's standards.
Zouave troops were considered elite, and often cultivated French style facial hair.

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Airborne and Special Operations Museum Welcomes One Millionth Visitor

Willa McRae-Haley of Brooklyn, N.Y., is greeted by John Koenig, Henry Holt and retired Gen. Jim Lindsay at the Army's Airborne & Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, N.C. McRae-Haley was the museum's one millionth visitor, 17 January 2006. Photo courtesy of Patrick Tremblay.

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around $6.5 million each year, and the facilities overall annual economic impact is estimated to be more than $46 million.

Additional information, including archived press releases and high resolution images, can be found on the Media Center of the museum’s website (www.asomf.org).

commander. She is often asked to speak on military heritage and history by the Daughters of the American Revolution, Republican Women, Army Retired Officers and Enlisted Spouses Clubs. She also conducts a historic flags program at area schools that instills a sense of history and patriotism to the school children.

Mrs. Ball has significantly improved the quality of life on Fort Lewis for thousands of Soldiers, family members, school children and the general public. She promotes the Army and Fort Lewis though her patriotic and historical programs, assists Soldiers with historical information and guidance, and generally fosters pride in the Army and its heritage. She continually puts the welfare of others before her own comfort and convenience. Through all her extraordinary efforts, Mrs. Ball represents patriotism, citizenship, pride in military service, and all that is good in the American spirit.

Mrs. Marion Sydenham-Ball, Fort Lewis Civilian Hall of Fame, 2006. Photo courtesy of the Fort Lewis Training Support Center, 17 January 2006.

Army Museums Support
Celebrate Freedom Festival 2005
Robert Anzuoni, Director
U.S. Army Signal Corps Museum
Fort Gordon, GA

Six U.S. Army Museums participated in the annual Celebrate Freedom Festival from 28–30 October 2005 in Camden, SC. The three-day air and ground show is sponsored by the Celebrate Freedom Foundation. The foundation is a private organization which promotes patriotism and support of the military through air shows, living history, parades, and other public events. For several years the Celebrate Freedom Festival was held at the historic Owens Field in Columbia where the Doolittle Raiders trained. With the success and growth of the

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Robert Anzuoni (center) with JROTC cadets from Camden, SC. Photos courtesy of the museum.

The festival continues to provide teamwork for the museums and interaction with local organizations promoting the Army. Many thanks to the event organizers and to all who supported it!

Preserving the Past: Third Army M48 Patton Tank Gets a Paint Job
Spc. Jonathan Montgomery
Third U.S. Army Public Affairs Office

The freshly painted M48 Patton tank located in front of the Third U.S. Army headquarters building at Fort McPherson. The museum staff is waiting for the paint to cure before reapplying the decals. All photos by Spc. Jonathan Montgomery.

After enduring five years of peeling paint in the Georgia heat, the 52–ton M48–series Patton tank that sits in front of the Third U.S. Army Headquarters building at Fort McPherson received a new paint job this fall.

"This repainting will keep the tank from deteriorating and will let us see what repairs need to be made," said Mike Criscillis, director of the Army in Atlanta Museum at Fort McPherson. Criscillis was given responsibility for the M48–series Patton tank from the Georgia National Guard, which was carrying a surplus of the tanks. In turn, the Army in Atlanta Museum staff lent the Patton tank to Patton's Own, Third Army. The last repainting was in 2000, so it'll be interesting to see how things like the heat have affected it since then," Criscillis said.

Soldiers' safety was taken into account before beginning the project. The tank was covered with an environmental tent to reduce exposure to pollutants. Once the shielding was up, the rusted areas were scraped clean in preparation for the tank's priming and repainting, using olive-drab green acrylic-enamel paint.

"The tent is meant to contain the paint's overspray, which can affect sensitive people whose immune systems aren't as strong as other folks’," explained Carroll Simmons, a vehicle and container painter from Fort Gillem who was brought on board to repaint the tank. "One person can walk by and won't get a headache, while another person will do the same and start sniffing, coughing and gagging." After taking the

event, organizers had to move to the larger Woodward Field in Camden in 2003. Woodward was also used to train pilots in World War II.

The U.S. Army’s Signal Corps, Finance Corps, Adjutant General Corps, Chaplain, Fort Jackson, and 82d Airborne Division museums provided exhibits and personnel in support of the event. The exhibits were designed to reach and inform the general public about the U.S. Army and in particular, to show the role of Army museums in preserving our military material culture. The exhibits opened Friday morning for Education Day which was attended by eighteen hundred area school children. Saturday and Sunday were days for the general public. The clear weather was ideal for viewing the ground exhibits and aerial performances. Nearly 100,000 people turned out for the event. Aircraft ranging from pre-World War II trainers to the modern F–18 were available for the public to view.

The Willys MB jeep and the PG–68 combat mobile pigeon loft used for the event.

Darcie Fouste, Director of the Adjutant General Museum, donned the uniform of a World War II nurse as part of a Field Hospital demonstration, and I conducted World War II Signal Corps living history demonstrations, showing various visual, radio, wire, and pigeon communications equipment.

Included in the demonstration was a World War II SCR–528 radio mounted on a Willys MB jeep and a PG–68 combat mobile pigeon loft on a ¼ ton trailer. The loft was specially built for outreach programs. It provides a focal point for the exhibit and is a real eye catcher with decoy pigeons mounted on it.

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Soldiers’ safety into account, the work of historical preservation became the focus of the revitalization effort.

Unfortunately, outdoor conditions such as the hot sun and rain damage adversely affect the aesthetic view of the tank, said Criscillis. "We're losing a lot of artifacts that sit out and deteriorate because of corrosion and heat," he explained. "For the most part, they become flowerpots, collecting water and looking pretty, when they're meant to preserve the past, not rust. We need to look at ways to shelter them or store them inside."

Simmons agreed. "Don't let it fall by the wayside," he said. "It makes you feel good to be able to see this (tank) come back to life." Developed from the M47 General Patton tank, the M48 was the mainstay of the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps in Vietnam. Some 11,703 M48s were built between 1952 and 1959. The M48, which was designed for combat in Europe against Soviet tanks, originally carried 90–mm guns, but upon modification to the M48A5 standard they were given the British 105–mm main gun.

The M48 was withdrawn from American service in favor of the M60, a further refinement of the M48, but the M48 Patton remains in service in a number of armies around the world. The tank's new paint job gives it a glossy green finish, which makes it look as if its tracks were just rolling fresh out of the assembly plant.

 

 

 

 

 

Carroll Simmons, a vehicle and container painter at Fort Gillem since 1998, scrapes rusted wells before priming and repainting the tank last fall.

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While several members of the museum staff work on various stages of the retrofitting process, our new Museum Technician, Thomas Potthast, does the majority of the work. Selected for the position because of his background in cabinetry and modeling, Tom has designed a rack system for the center walls which allows us to move them up to 18” in either direction. This gives us much greater flexibility in installing artifacts in these cases.

 

 

Interior view of an exhibit case before retrofitting. The carpeting, particle board slotted center wall and plywood substructure will be removed. All photos by Scott Schoner.

 

Tom Potthast preparing to remove the plywood substructure

View of the bottom of the rack system, which allows the center wall to be adjusted in 2” increments.

 

 

South Dakota National Guard Museum
Robert Kusser, Director
Pierre, SD

The South Dakota National Guard Museum

The South Dakota National Guard Museum traces its beginnings to a small military museum sponsored by the 147th Field Artillery Historical Society started in 1975. Eight years later, the state legislature created the National Guard museum and placed it under the oversight of the South Dakota Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. Since then, the museum has grown rapidly and plays a prominent role among museums. The museum is focused on the history of the South Dakota Air and Army National Guard.

Exhibitions in the museum begin with the Civil War period, when the region was known as the Dakota

Territory. The territorial militia protected settlers from Indian raids while most of the federal soldiers were fighting Confederate forces further south and east. Later, South Dakota troops served overseas in the Philippines during the Spanish American War and then on the U.S.–Mexican border during the Punitive Expedition. Subsequent exhibits address the participation of the South Dakota citizens and it’s National Guard in World Wars I and II, Korean War and Berlin Crisis. Several combat support and service support units of the South Dakota National Guard served in Southwest Asia during OPERATION DESERT STORM.

Elements of the National Guard have supported peace enforcement operations in Bosnia–Herzegovina, Kosovo, and most recently mobilized and deployed troops in support of the war on terrorism by participating in OPERATION NOBLE EAGLE, OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM, and OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM.

On display outside the facility are several examples of typical military aircraft, armored vehicles, and artillery used by the South Dakota National Guard since World War II.

The museum is open Monday–Friday, 0900 to 1600, CST. It is closed weekends and holidays. Guided tours are available by appointment and admission is free. The telephone number is (605) 224-9991 or (605) 773- 2475, and the website is Website: http:// www.state.sd.us/military/Military/museum.htm

Museum Celebrates 100th Anniversary
John Manguso, Director
Fort Sam Houston Museum
Fort Sam Houston, TX

With a flourish of the ceremonial cake knife (actually a non-artifact M–1 bayonet), I began the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the construction of Building 123 at Fort Sam Houston, TX. Building 123 was completed in 1905 as a two-company mess hall, has been home for the Fort Sam Houston Museum since 1975. It was part of the 1905 expansion of Fort Sam Houston, which made that installation the largest Army post in the nation.

For most of its first four decades Building 123 served as the dining facility for two batteries of field artillery stationed in the artillery post section of Fort Sam Houston. After the World War II the building was converted to a club for organized reserve officers, then as a club for the post WAC detachment (earning the nickname the WAC Shack) and finally, as office space for the fourth Army Inspector General. In 1975, as part of the post’s Bicentennial Celebration, the Fort Sam

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Houston Museum was relocated into Building 123 to improve the museum’s ability to tell the story of Fort Sam Houston.

Cutting the cake also marked the inauguration of a major new exhibition about the first two decades of the history of the Cavalry and Light Artillery post. During this period, the Army underwent a period of transformation, changing from the old Army of the Indian Wars to the Army of a world power. This exhibit amplifies the Fort Sam Houston Museum’s permanent exhibit, The Largest Army Post. Within the exhibit are twenty-nine artifacts, twenty-three photos of artifacts in the collection and one hundred twenty-eight images of the neighborhood during the period 1905 to 1925.

Four elements comprise the new exhibit: The first looks at The Neighborhood, the barracks, support buildings and family housing which were built between 1905 and 1912. The second element focuses on Soldiers and Soldiering, illustrating the daily life of the Soldiers serving at the cavalry and artillery post. Next is a Who’s Who of some of the distinguished former residents of this historic neighborhood. These include President Dwight Eisenhower, Army Chiefs of Staff Hugh Scott Maxwell Taylor and George Decker, Chiefs of Chaplains Edmund Easterbrook and John Axton, Army Surgeon General Merritte Ireland, Medal of Honor recipients Robert G. Cole and Gordon Johnston and astronaut Edward White. The last element of the exhibit deals with Flight Operations in 1910 and 1911 when the Army’s air arm increased from one aircraft to three.

Two sub-elements in the exhibition highlight the transformation which occurred during this time. Arms for the 20th Century follows the transition in handguns from black powder to smokeless powder with four firearms whose use span the period and the decline in the utility of swords illustrated by examples of the last three types adopted by the Army.

The anniversary celebration was conceived as the anchor for a series of events and celebrations to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the neighborhood of which Building 123 is a part. The centennial commemoration of the neighborhood is expected to run for seven years, covering the span during which the cavalry and artillery post was built. Future highlights in the commemoration will include the centennial anniversary of the birth of military aviation, 2 March 1910, and the centennial of the 1911 Maneuver Camp.

Fort Sam Houston celebrates with a cake. Photos courtesy of the museum staff.

 

Part of the Centennial Exhibit

 

Fort Sam Houston Garrison Commander, Colonel Wendy Martinson (right), chats with Joan Gaither, President of the Society for the Preservation of Historic Fort Sam Houston, Col. John Olson, historian of the Philippine Scouts Heritage Society and participant in the defense of Bataan in 1942 and Elias San Miguel, Exhibits Specialist, who executed and fabricated the exhibits.

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Close Combat Uniforms Donated to
the Old Guard Museum
Alan Bogan
U.S. Army Center of Military History
Museum Division

The Old Guard Museum, Fort Myer, VA, recently received two desert camouflaged Close Combat Uniforms (CCU) from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry (The Old Guard), Fort Lewis, WA. The CCU was one of the prototype/interim uniforms tested with a view to replacing the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) in the U.S. Army. It preceded the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) now being fielded Army-wide.

The two uniforms donated to The Old Guard Museum were worn in-theater by the CSM and the Battalion S4 Officer of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry (The Old Guard) during that unit’s deployment to Iraq. This was the first deployment of a unit of The Old Guard since the Vietnam War. Both uniforms have the unique reversed Indianhead shoulder sleeve insignia on the right arm as the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia-Former Wartime Service.

The 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry deployed to Iraq as part of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the U.S. Army’s first Stryker Brigade. The Old Guard Museum has maintained contact with “2nd of the 3rd” from the time it was reactivated at Fort Lewis in March 2001, through its deployment to Iraq and after its return to home station. The museum provided historical information and images to the unit and received help from them to acquire artifacts related to the Vietnam service of the battalion.

 

 

 

All photos courtesy of Kirk Heflin, Director, The Old Guard

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CMH Partners with the AFIKIM Foundation
Terry Dougherty, Chief, Programs Branch
U.S. Army Center of Military History, Museum Division

In 2005 the Chief of Military History received funding from Congress to oversee the development of an innovative traveling exhibit for museums, public libraries and schools showing the scope and impact of the Holocaust for all Americans and future generations. The Congressional funding grant was presented to the AFIKIM Foundation which was established in 2002 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing the critical challenges of the 21st century through the development of creative, educational and community outreach initiatives

The One Soul Exhibition is a planned, moving portrayal of the American liberation of Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II. Through a squareshaped layout with an open space for contemplation in the center; the exhibit will draw the viewer into a vista of horrors experienced by American soldiers when they entered the camps a month before VE Day. The target audience includes members of the Army, veteran, their families and friends.

The opening of the exhibit with its first stop will be the Pentagon, tentatively scheduled for July 2006. Over the next few several weeks, the Museum Division will be contacting the AMS institutions concerning potential site visits for the exhibit, and artifacts that could be utilized at the individual site to support it.

We will be contacting you via email in late February regarding this initiative.

Ridgway Hall, home of the Army Heritage and Education Center administrative functions, the U.S. Army Military History Institute, and current exhibit space for the U.S. Army Heritage Museum. Photos courtesy of Roger Durham.

The U.S. Army Heritage Museum
Roger Durham, Director
Carlisle Barracks, PA

The US Army Heritage Museum (USAHM) at Carlisle Barracks, PA, has been making great strides in

the past year. As an essential element of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), the museum has been focusing on developing its staff, its exhibit mission, and addressing the myriad issues related to pending certification inspection. Until this past summer, the staff consisted of the director, a chief curator, three museum curators and two museum technicians. Since occupying our new 8,000 sq. ft. storage facility in September of 2004, the staff has been addressing cataloging issues, sorting out the collection after the move from its former location on post, and focusing on exhibit priorities for the newly built Ridgway Hall, currently home to the U.S. Army Military History institute (USMHI) as well as the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center administrative function.

Ridgway Hall houses the Military History Institute, the Army’s premier archive and research library for the study of U.S. Army history. A room on the second floor and portions of the upper hallway were devoted to establishing quality exhibits to highlight the museum’s collection. Exhibits focusing on the museum’s MOLLUS Civil War collection were installed in the designated room in January 2005, while an exhibit entitled The Army in Your Attic was placed on the open landing where the elevator is located. This exhibit allowed us to show some of our material, while challenging visitors to consider what they had tucked away in their attics and closets at home. Rotating exhibits of historic posters and photos drawn from our collections were also installed along the hallways. Currently we have a two-phased photo exhibit entitled The Eye of the Army that focuses on Army photography through the 19th and 20th centuries and also a traveling exhibition of rare, vintage posters of allies and adversaries entitled Designing for Victory, 1914-1945. These posters from the Army Heritage Museum collection will travel to education centers across the state of Pennsylvania in 2005–2006, to illustrate how a nation at war will challenge its citizens to do their duty, to make contributions, and to accept sacrifices for their country. The exhibition also draws attention to the multi-faceted resources held by the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center.

With the growing demand for exhibits, we recently started the process to bring our exhibit staff on board, hiring Mr. Stanley Byers as our Chief of Exhibits in August, and Mr. Thomas Walck as Exhibit Fabricator in October. Currently we are in the process of hiring an exhibit designer, and another exhibit fabricator. With this staff in place, our museum is well prepared to face the exhibit challenges that lie ahead.

Another part of our exhibit mission relates to what we refer to as our road shows. Throughout the year, the museum attends a number of events where we provide exhibits that highlight not only the museum, but our parent organization, the U.S. Army Heritage and

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Education Center. In the past year we have exhibited at the Company of Military Historians conference in Rhode Island, the Maryland Arms Collectors Association show in Baltimore, where our exhibit received the Governor’s Award, the National Rifle Association annual show in Kansas City, where our exhibit received the Judge’s Choice Award, the AUSA conference, and the Capital of the Confederacy Civil War Relic Show in Richmond.

The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center is a growing entity. Located on a 55-acre tract of land upon which Ridgway Hall and the museum storage facility is located, eventually the complex will include a Visitors and Education Center, a Museum Support Facility for permanent collection storage, conservation and processing functions; and the Army Heritage Museum. A portion of the property will incorporate a mile-long hiking trail that will have displays of macro artifacts interpreting designated vignettes of Army history. The Army Heritage Trail is already well under way with completion expected around the end of 2006.

The Visitors and Education Center will be the gateway to the entire complex and will be the second major structure for the Army Heritage and Education Center campus. On 6 December 2005, the Army Heritage Center Foundation announced the selection of the architectural firm of Fentress Bradburn of Denver, Colorado, to design and build the Visitors and Education Center (VEC) facility for the Army Heritage and Education Center. This will be a $16 million dollar facility and construction is anticipated to begin in late 2006 or early 2007. Fentress specializes in museum design, having done the Marine Corps Museum and the Museum of Science in Boston, among others. They were also the design firm for the Denver International Airport terminal.

Eventually, a museum will be built flanking the Visitors and Education Center, but this phase will follow the completion of the Visitors Center. Visitors to the site will access both the Military History Institute and the Army Heritage Museum from the visitors center. The Visitor and Education Center will have a 250 seat auditorium, a conference room and meeting rooms, a dining facility, gift shop, and 10,000 square feet of exhibit galleries. The facility will be able to handle educational programs, meetings, veteran reunions, and many different types of functions besides serving as the entryway to one of the greatest holdings of U.S. Army material culture and archival holdings.

The initial staff for the Visitors and Education Center is already being hired. On 23 January 2006, Mr. Jack Giblin, former Chief Curator of the Army Heritage

A Civil War winter cabin located on the Heritage Trail during a recent interpretive program. These cabins are only one of many different vignette exhibits of Army heritage through the ages. Others include the Hagerstown Pike at Antietam, the Omaha beachhead of Normandy, a French and Indian War blockhouse, a Revolutionary War earthwork, Vietnam-era, Spanish American War, World War I, etc.

Civil War Winter Camp on the Heritage Trail during an interpretive program.

Museum Awarded Conservation Grant
Tracy Buckley, Museum Curator
Oregon Military Museum
Clackamas, WA

The Oregon Military Museum is very pleased to announce that we have been awarded a Clackamas Cultural Coalition grant in the amount of $1,425. The grant is for the conservation treatment and new display housing of the circa 1870 Portland Light Battery Guidon.

The Portland Light Battery Guidon is in risk of deteriorating beyond repair unless intervention and conservation actions are taken immediately to stabilize its catastrophic decay. The battery, dating from 1866 to 1872, has evolved into the 2nd Battalion of the 218th Field

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Artillery Regiment of the today’s Oregon National Guard. This battalion is the oldest National Guard organization with a record of continuous service in Oregon and on the Pacific Coast. It is also one of the earliest artillery organizations constituted west of the Mississippi River.

The total costs of conservation treatment and a display case that provides permanent housing for the Guidon is $7,480. Funds in the amount of $3,604 remain to be raised in order to carry out the project. If you’d like more information about the project, please contact me at 503-557-5359.

Pictures of the condition of the Portland Light Battery Guidon. Photos courtesy of Tracy Buckley.

New Aviation Pergola for the U.S. Army Medical Department Museum
Tom McMasters, Director
Fort Sam Houston, TX

New construction is underway at the U.S. Army Medical Department Museum (AMEDD) at Fort Sam Houston for an air ambulance pergola. As in previous construction phases undertaken by the AMEDD Museum Foundation, Inc., the project is approved by Secretary of the Army, built by the Foundation and then turned over to the Army to run.

The Museum has been built in phases: Phase I completed in 1989 was an exhibit hall and administrative wing; Phase II completed in 1998 added another exhibit hall, rail ambulance cover and ambulance pergola; and

Phase III completed in 2001 which added a collections area and foundation office. The new aviation pergola has been dubbed Phase IIIa, since it includes some refurbishment of earlier phases. For example, sun screens will be added to the West sides of both pergolas to reduce exposure to our South Texas sun. The original pergola will be devoted to ground ambulances only.

When all is completed, we will have a 40,000 square foot main building, two pergolas and a covered hospital train ambulance car. Phase IIIa will also expand the museum’s grounds to encompass about two acres of landscaping that will add a Medal of Honor walk to the existing memorial plaza, DUSTOFF wall of honor and garden with gazebo. We started out to build a museum and ended up with a campus. When I signed on with the AMEDD Museum in February 1986, we were still in an 8,000 square foot basement.

It has been an eventful twenty years and looks like we will continue to have new challenges as Fort Sam Houston takes on medical training for all the services in the coming years.

Construction on the new pergola. Photos by Tom McMasters.

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The Army Museum Memo is published bimonthly (except for the Nov/Dec/Jan issue) and distributed to all activities that comprise the Army Museum System. The primary objective of the Memo is to inform Army museums and museum activities of recent developments and operations that may affect the Army Museum Program. The information contained in this publication is provided for the edification of the reader only. In no way shall any information contained herein be construed as a recommendation or endorsement of any product, program, or service. Terry Van Meter (DAMH-MD) Director of Army Museums J. Terry Dougherty (DAMD-MDM) Acting Chief, Museum Division Lynden Couvillion (DAMH-MDH) Chief, Historical Clearinghouse Branch (Anniston) Walter Bradford (DAMD-MDC) Acting Chief, Collections Branch and Staff Curator Julia Simon (DAMH-MDM) Army Museum Memo Staff

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