Post Cards from the old Patton Museum

Memorial Day; 2003:

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M - R . . . . . . . . . . . . . M - R

M - R . . . . . . . . . . . . M - R

M - R

M - R


These Saturday/Sunday events would go on rain or shine. (and “shine” usually meant sunny and a 104 degrees!)

M - R

M - R


Tain’t all fun n’ games ~ the Museum restoration staff hard at work, gas’n the Hetzer!

BMW Motorcycle & Sidecar Owned by Museum Volunteer:

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M - R

M - R . . . . . . M - R . . . . . . . M - R

M - R

.

M - R

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ROLL3DX-22AB&W

All Photos Copyright Michael Koenig ~ All Rights Reserved ~ Please, for personal use only!

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@165thspc Yes, there is still something left there, but the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor is gone. And what the infantry guys have created in its place isn’t even a museum, it’s a part time training facility and storage area. At least they haven’t hauled everything out to the firing range for hard targets, yet!
Ken

P.S. Great photos!

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A touch of winter time at the Patton:
a.k.a. Battle of the Bulge

M

This is the war damaged Panther that used to sit out behind the Museum but with track and road wheels digitally repaired.

All Photos Copyright Michael Koenig ~ All Rights Reserved ~ Please, for personal use only!

Part of the WWI exhibit in the Patton:
This entire rather large exhibit was due almost totally to the efforts and hard work of Mr. Henry Penn (Museum Graphic Artist/Exhibit Designer.)

Sorry but there is a FT-17 hidden somewhere in all the tall grass. Hopefully I can find some photos of that one as well!

All Photos Copyright Michael Koenig ~ All Rights Reserved ~ Please, for personal use only!

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An “After Acton Report” slide show that I did in 2001"
Sorry for the reduced resolution here as the original files were lost due to memory corruption on a hard drive. (Which is why today I keep everything backed up in triplicate on different external drives!

Page 1edit

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


All Photos Copyright Michael Koenig ~ All Rights Reserved ~ Please, for personal use only!

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Patton’s Office/Command/Sleeping Quarters Deuce:
This vehicle, I believe, is still on display in the “Patton Room” in the old Museum Building at Ft. Knox as is the fatal Limo.


Patton was leaning forward talking to his driver and when the Limo hit the truck the General’s head was driven forward into that ceiling brace seen here, fracturing his spinal column.
No plot, no conspiracy, just plain bad luck.


Patton’s Leica Camera and additional Lenses:

All Photos Copyright Michael Koenig ~ All Rights Reserved ~ Please, for your personal, private use only!

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Wow - not much room between the truck and the ceiling!

Tom ~ That is just a light weight suspended ceiling over the Office Truck.

The entire Museum Building is a 2-story, high bay, post and beam metal structure. In a few places there are even second story viewing terraces that look down over the World War I exhibit diorama. There is even a vault/attic that contained weapons, German Nazi table china, flags and other memoribilia as well as NOS equipment such as pristine WWII tank radios. (Which we were not allowed to touch even while we worked to restore functioning communications to 2 Shermans and 2 Stuarts.) We had to search the “junk bins” in the Motor Pool buildings (and on eBay) for radio parts! Everything in the attic was to be handled ONLY with white gloves! (Not Kidding!)

MAIL CALL

R. Lee doing a spot for his popular TV show “Mail Call” covering Patton’s Ivory handled revolvers. (Property of the Patton family estate and still stored at Knox. ~ To the best of my knowledge. ~ The family would not allow the General’s personal affects to be moved to Benning.


R. Lee with the then Patton Museum Director: Frank Jardim.


R Lee and his son pose with General Patron.

All Photos Copyright Michael Koenig ~ All Rights Reserved ~ Please, for your personal, private use only!

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Some assorted (and not all that good) photos from inside the Museum:

M . . . . . . . . . . . . M - R . . . . . . . . . . .M - R

M - R

M

M - R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M - R

M

All Photos Copyright Michael Koenig ~ All Rights Reserved ~ Please, for your personal, private use only!

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A lot of fresh camo paint here courtesy of the Patton Volunteers!
My contributions may have been small but my Graphic Arts background did allow me to cut all the stencils for the markings on the Stug.

M
MARDER I 3

M

M

M - R

M - R
Swim

M - R

M - R
NeuHet 1
Back dated WWII camo paint for the Hetzer!

M - R

All Photos Copyright Michael Koenig ~ All Rights Reserved ~ Please, for your personal, private use only!

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Is that a real Hetzer or a G13?
Ken

I am now in the process of adding a coding system to my photographs.


In the upper left corner above each photo will appear an:

  • M - Signifies a Vehicle in the Patton Museum Collection
  • R - Signifies a RUNNING Patton Museum Vehicle
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tankerken ~ That’s a real back dated post-war Hetzer. (Four hole sprocket)

A couple more shots of Stuarts owned by the 14th Armored Group:
They often partnered with the Patton for the many annual events as they were located so close to Knox.

Seen here at the 2018 Louisville MVPA Show

Some of these photos also appeared in David Doyle’s most recent book on the Stuart.

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The Commander wanted an “Old vs. New” Recce comparison photo.


And then the Commander also wanted a MBT comparison photo as well. What could I say but; Yes, I’d be happy to??? After all he was itaking charge of the vehicle posing here and the tankers had to do what he ordered so who am I to balk at such a juicy photo op?

All Photos Copyright Michael Koenig ~ All Rights Reserved ~ Please, for your personal, private use only!

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Mike, wow, many thanks for posting these! These are awesome. Thank you so much. I’m going to go back and look at them and detail.

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I was one of the last people to visit it before being relocated. The move was already being planned and was purely political (so the employees stated). Samething about moving the armor down to Georgia. They had spent millions of tax dollars upgrading Ft. Knox, and then tossed it away. There is still one armored cav unit down there, and has something to do with the gold.

Never really was impressed with the way the kept things down there. One up tanks were often left out in the open to simply rust and collect bird droppings. Allisons gave them a brand new (less than three miles on it) M46 tank that didn’t even have a chip mark on the paint. They promptly set it out to rust away! Then you go 150 miles north to Dayton Ohio and everything is kept in a pristine condition. Ft. Sill is pretty much the same way inside and out.
gary

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Since this thread started, I read a number of articles and watched a number of videos concerned with the move. The motives and goals remain unclear to me. In the end, I want the vehicles preserved, on display, and kids visiting and experiencing them as living history. If the British can maintain Bovington and the Russians can maintain Kubinka, the most economically prosperous nation on the planet can surely maintain a proper tank museum and teach their citizens some real history.

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They can if they wanted too. Right now many don’t like our history and want to change/remove it.

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