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Lucky stiffs on the east coast...this is museum funding at it's best!

Full story here:

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1...from/RS.3/

Army ponders amusement venue, hotel

Officials consider Va. theme park to help offset cost of $300 million museum

Updated: 20 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Army officials say they are considering allowing a private developer to build a 125-acre entertainment, hotel and conference center complex next to a national Army museum at Fort Belvoir that could draw more than 1 million people a year to traffic-choked southern Fairfax County.

The possibility of adding what county officials call a military theme park arises as about 22,000 employees prepare to be transferred to Fort Belvoir in the next five years because of the federal base realignment and closure recommendations, designed to save $49 billion nationwide.

The Army is considering the entertainment venue to help offset the cost of the $300 million museum, which a spokesman said is scheduled to open in 2013. No federal funds are being sought for the museum, but Fairfax has donated $240,000.

A Florida developer has submitted an unsolicited proposal for a military theme park that would include the "Chateau Belvoir" hotel and an entertainment district with bars like the "1st Division Lounge" and several "4D" rides.

"You can command the latest M-1 tank, feel the rush of a paratrooper freefall, fly a Cobra Gunship or defend your B-17 as a waist gunner," according to the proposal by Universal City Property Management III of Orlando. The company has no connection to NBC-Universal, which owns Universal Studios, a spokeswoman said yesterday.

This goes right along with the idea Disney had a few years ago with a U.S. history themed park near the Mannassas Battlefield including things like 'experiencing slave life on a plantation'

Hey if they want to have a military theme park we don't need a hotel. Guests can dig their own foxhole each night.

Will they have bar girls asking for Champagne and offering "Number 1 good time" at the 1st Division Lounge. Or Can I wear a 1st Cav patch in there and pick a fight?

Bob,
That 's the "A" ride above. "B" ticket holders can break wedge bolts, hold the tanker bar while somebody knocks end connecters off, and empty drool buckets.
No "Me love you long time" for "B" ticket holders.

Yeah, and when the think it's time to leave they can get extended.

Joe D

Isn't APG's museum moving to Belvoir? I don't care about the amusement park, per se, as long as it helps fund the museum.

The National Museum of the US Army will be at Fort Belvoir, which is south of Washington DC.

The Ordnance Museum is moving to Fort Lee, which is near Petersburg, south of Richmond.

Neil

Ah... my bad. Thanks for the correction.

Would the snack bar be the tail gate of the Sergeant Major's truck, selling only the things he liked to smoke, eat and drink? Export A cigarettes, Coke, Salt and Vinegar chips, Jos Louis cakes, Hot Rods and Colt winedipped cigars.

For the kids, the drinking fountain is the faucet on a water buffalo. Mom's don't need to worry about disinfecting the tap because the recipe for clorination is stencilled right on the side.

But, would the developers want cat sanitation everywhere, or would they compromise and accept Blue Rocket shi**ers?

We've had fun with this but on the 10 PM news DC news they just had a story that the plan is 'Dead on Arrival'

It was suppsedly in the Washington Post

The weirdest part for the entering park-goers would have been the skinhead haircut.

Russ

Here's the story:
www.washingtonpost.com...00831.html

Neil

Interestingly, the new museum is now planned to built on the former Engineer Proving Ground - ie where the T28 was found... Why cant I help but wonder if they'll find something else in the process?

Neil

This must be the former EPG. I had wondered where the heck it was from the times I had been on Belvoir, from the maps I saw I couldnt imagine where it was - but now I learn from this article that its to the northwest...

Anybody see any tanks?

FYI, its the generally empty area on the top left of the screen, just to the left of the major interstate (I-95) with the racetrack type course...

www.google.com/maps?f=...6,0.042915

Neil

A few years ago I took a Remote Sensed Imaging course from some travelling trainers from the Terrain Analysis schoolhouse in Belvoir. We had some hyperspectral imagery of the camp, and one of the tasks was to change the band combinations as we were looking at a vehicle park. I remember picking out the tanks, trucks, half-tracks and stuff under cam nets.

Open question, does anyone recognize where these few dozen vehicles might be in Belvoir, and maybe post some landmarks for those of us who can't find them again.

(The instructor and I made a bet that the M47 tanks weren't M48s. My classmates were surprised I'd challenge the instructor, but he freely admitted being a radar analyst and not an image analyst.)

The building in this picture has the closest thing I can find to "vehicles" (or at least the small dark 'blobs' on the northern side) I can find on the satellite photos...

www.google.com/maps?f=...4,0.002682

There may be other candidates out there, but I'm not exactly an IMINT anayst...

Neil