The trainer is a static display for now, said Kyle, although he hopes to eventually figure out how to safely allow visitors to ride it.Īpollo-era relics and displays are an unexpected museum bonus. Also out back is an "egress trainer" - it looks a little like Sealab - that was designed to toss soldiers around like a tumble dryer to imitate a troop transport that's been hit by a roadside bomb. Kennedy.įor an extra charge visitors can be bump-and-rumbled around the property in a tank-tracked M113 armored personnel carrier - a good way, Kyle said, to briefly experience the hard knocks of military life. "It had unsavory American soldiers," said Kyle, explaining the military's reluctance to help the movie-makers.ġ2-foot-long, 1:100 scale model of the aircraft carrier John F. government refused to loan an American tank for the filming of Courage Under Fire. One tank, an M1 Abrams, is in fact an Australian Centurion with a fake exterior, a clever makeover engineered by the Sondays when the U.S. (Because so much of the museum is outdoors, the Sondays close it in bad weather, so call before you visit). Huey Cobra attack helicopter guards a shipping container. Tanks, jeeps, trucks, and Humvees are everywhere, along with amphibious landing ships, halftracks, helicopters, fighter jets, and at least one hovercraft. Adjacent to the museum's front door is an MGM-5 nuclear missile (one of two nukes in the collection), but the back lot is the real heart of the museum, a dream-come-true salvage yard that any 12-year-old would appreciate. Inside the museum's 10,000-square-foot building (a former car dealership) is some nicely preserved armament, but most of the vehicles are outside, in various states of repair and disrepair, spread across 15 acres. Sign indicates why it's wise to keep the hatches open. One cannot keep a howitzer in the basement or a Skycrane helicopter in the back yard - at least not for very long. Following a path that we've seen before, the museum evolved out of a private obsession that grew too big. Despite appearances, the Sondays' interest is in military history, not active firepower (Those who want to blast away with weapons will need to go elsewhere). "We enjoy the tanks and big stuff," said Kyle Sonday, museum VP and son of Mark Sonday, who started amassing the collection in the late 1970s. Outside the museum entrance: an MGM-5 nuclear missile.
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