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I want to give an update on our trip next weekend (Saturday, April 30th) to the American Military Museum (aka “Tanklandâ€.)
We’ve decided we’re going to meet in Tankland’s parking lot at 1:00 PM and spend the afternoon viewing the collection. Parking is free. The cost of admission is $5.00. The collection consists of 178 military-related items, including a wide range of WWII vehicles. It is entirely outdoors. When we’ve seen everything that can be seen and otherwise made a complete nuisance of ourselves, we’ll adjourn for an early dinner at The Hat, which is about 2 miles away on the same street.
Remember, this is a family-friendly event. Feel free to invite anyone you know who might be interested.
The museum is located at 1918 Rosemead Blvd, El Monte; just north of highway 60. Their website is http://www.tankland.com. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me off-list at jfaikens@verizon.net. I can also be reached on my cell phone 760-738-1437.
I’ve already heard from quite a few members who plan to attend, so we’re expecting to have a nice group there. I hope you can join us!
We had 7 Club members (me, Eric Visnowski, Geoff Coward, Dave Rosner, Dan Plachta, Matt Cicero and Rob Stai), 2 guests (EV’s friend Kevin Stein and my guest, Eric Nyquist from Gamex) and one family member (Matt’s son Roman) for our SoCalASL field trip to the American Military Museum (aka “Tanklandâ€) in S. El Monte.
We had a great afternoon wandering through the collection of 178 pieces, including armored vehicles, jeeps, trucks, boats and guns. The vast majority of the collection is U.S. circa 1943 – 1970, but they had other items as well. The equipment is all outside, with a variety of weathering. There’s a certain ‘bone yard’ feel to the place, as opposed to Littlefield, which is entirely indoors. We saw some interesting stuff they didn’t have at Littlefield, including an LVT-4, a Bren Carrier, a Weasel, a 150mm Japanese mortar, and a Japanese Ha-Go (actually a recreation, used for the movie “Wind Talkersâ€.) They also had a couple of Higgins Boats, W.W.I and W.W.II navel mines, and a Vietnam-era river boat.
It was a perfect day for the trip weather-wise, and the gentlemen that run the place were very pleasant and helpful. After we’d seen and photographed everything there was to see and photograph, we made our way to The Hat for a nitrate-laden lunch of pastrami, French fries and onion rings; and of course a lot of socializing.
On a personal note, I had a blast. It was a great way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon!
Gents,
Although by no means does the American Military Museum compete on the same level as the Littlefield collection ,it did prove to be worth the time as we had an enjoyable day poking around the displays and seeing some very interesting items. The two collections certainly hit you on different levels from an emotional perspective. the Littlefield collection has a more charged atmosphere, what with it's deeper and mostly pristine assortment of vehicles,whereas the Tankland collection is mostly in a state of arrested decay. The both have their plusses.What I particularly enjoyed at Tankland were the Higgins Boat,with the grey paint peeling off of it's deck and bulkheads, the DUKW, which I had never before seen,the torpedo mount off of a cruiser, and the M8 Greyhound. I was also impressed by the M 60 and the massive M 53 155mm SPA afv. For anyone with an urge to view military relics , you can't go wrong with a visit to Tankland.[ And perhaps a short trip to The Hat, afterwards] As Jim has stated, we hope to , and have , created a tradition of making some type of a field trip annually. We will be looking into other venues in the future and hope to see you join in the fun!
Regards, EV
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