If you drive around much, you'll often see something like an old tank outside a National Guard armory. Or an anti-aircraft gun in a park. Or a field piece on a trailer next to a ballfield. Maybe an old fighter plane on top of a pole.

A lot of these relics have no identifying markings or plaque. I think it would be a nice addition to everyone's education if there was some bronze or otherwise weatherproof plaque on or next to the displayed ordnance. The type, purpose, years or wars it served in; stuff like that. If possible, it would be nice to let people know where that particular tank or gun had been.

Don't start sending me checks. I haven't started a foundation to identify de-milled relics. It would be a worthwhile project, I think.

H. C.

H.C.,

Probably best not to assume they're all demils.

The 40mm Bufors rack that was in the park in South Charleston was removed when someone realized that it was NOT a demil ... probably well rusted into non-servicability, but not a demil.

Has been the source of some chuckles for me though, as it seems obvious that such things should have been checked years ago!

Was that the one at the top of the hill in Little Creek Park that was painted red?

H. C.

That's the one ... quad mount.

Noticed it had disappeared, then caught an article in the newspaper that indicated that it had sat there for many, many years and while generations of kids had played on it ... it was live.

Grin

A gentleman who will remain naeless decided that durring the Centennial celebrations in Trento Ont. it would be fitting to fire the large coastal defense type black powder cannon at the top of a prominent hill. He and a friend, cleaned up the fuse hole, prepared a charge of close to a lb of black which they ground to a finer consistancy as it seemed coarse to them. A large newspaper wad completed the load. The BOOM broke windows several blocks away. Since most people were at the celebrations they escaped but decided to return several nights later and spike the gun to prevent anyone else's attempts.

Probably a worthy proposition. I'll add a couple of additional sites, the town park in Ochchobee, FL has multiple 40mm, 20mm, and 5inch38s, and there was a gorgeous US Army towed 4.5inch gun-howitzer in a small NY town just South of Binghamton, NY, backroad to the East of the Interstate. The town square in Sedalia, MO, has a pair of nice, heavily painted, 155mm Howitzers too. Can think of a number of pieces of armor in upstate, NY, Shermans, Priests, and either a M3 or M5 light tank. LLS

Town hall in Waldo, Ohio has a pair of 75mm anti-tank guns.
Legion hall in Cardington, Ohio has a 155mm howitzer.
A park in Marion, Ohio used to have a .50" caliber quad mount remote control anti-aricraft piece, don't know where the remote control was located but Marion never suffered an aerial bombardment while it was there.
Indiana may be a little more upscale than Ohio, as I recall, there is an F-100 on a stick (steel post) visible from Colesuem Boulevard in Fort Wayne.

Camp Dodge in Johnston Iowa has an M4A3E8 that is complete and in running condition. The reason I know is that we were going to tow it down to the shop to get it repainted years ago, and the SGT on the M88 didn't disconnect the final drives, so it fired up and started trying to push the M88!!!

I also used to volunteer at the Gold Star museum on Camp Dodge, and had to tell the curator there that EACH AND EVERY ONE of their display rifles, machineguns and rocket launchers were completely operational. They used to loan me these items to give in-school presentation to little kids, until one day I decided to clean them up a little bit, and discovered that they hadn't been demilled....