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I got to visit Camp Pendleton while visiting some future in-laws in San Diego last week. While we didnt get to go inside the LVT Museum (the Marine on duty didnt have any help to open it up for us), Brian (aka blackdog) gave us a great tour of the Mechanized Museum.

smg.photobucket.com/al...Pendleton/

Here's a few of the photos I took.

















For Don:





Many thanks again Brian - needless to say, my future nephew & niece think I'm pretty cool now

Neil

Thanks Neil

Nice to see an update on the 2 Ontos out there.

Regards
Don

Is that an M60A3? Didn't know they had them????

Yes it's a M60A3, no they didn't use them.

The museum actually has a few things the Marine Corps never used

As an organization that has only been around for about ten years, when it comes to older vehicles, we're left to pick from the leftover vehicles in the overall historical asset "pool" (the vehicles that every other military museum didn't pick up first). So, we acquire some items of non-USMC-but-still-military-historical-value that we might be able to use in official exchanges with appropriate organizations in the future. The M60A3 was formerly at the Portola RR museum, and the Mechanized Museum got it because there was not really anywhere else nearby for it to go, and because we don't have very many tanks. That being said, if any representatives of US Army museums have a USMC M60A1 with reactive armor that they'd like to exchange for an M60A3, with you paying for the transportation costs, we'd love to hear from you...

Blackdog,

You may want to check the back lot at the Patton Museum in Chiriaco Summit, CA. There are a bunch of former USMC M60A1s there, and at least two are set up for the reactive armor. One still has dummy blocks installed. Troll the posts here for some pics. Since the vehicles are literally sitting outside the back fence at the museum, I have to wonder if they wouldn't be willing to do a little horse trading...

Chuck

The pictures I've seen of those particular tanks don't indicate that they'd really be feasible for such a trade given their condition (ours is operational). Plus, it's a private museum - an exchange between them and us with an armored vehicle isn't possible as far as I know.

There is one M60A1 with reactive armor, supposedly with Desert Storm combat history, at 4th Tank Battalion in San Diego. However, given who they are, and that they have a concrete pad underneath it, it's unlikely that they would be all too supportive of a swap. But the day that some officer decides that they no longer want it rusting in their front yard is the day we'll be there with a 9-axle truck to pick it up!

In addition, it pains me to think about some of the opportunities our museum missed out on in its infancy: for at least a decade, and up until about five years ago, there were at least 5 M60A1's with reactive armor sitting in a range storage lot on Camp Pendleton. The hatches had been left open, rained into, and surrounding brush had caught fire more than once... but overall, they were still great museum candidates. Unfortunately, at that time, we did not have the resources, the equipment, or the connections to recover them. I think that they were pulled out and trucked to 29 Palms as target vehicles. In the end, we did end up with an AVDS1790 from one of them though...



Our eventual goal is to acquire a DODX flatcar to put between our locomotive and (soon-to-be-ours) camouflage caboose. We will be putting the gutted-but-presentable M60A1 that we do have on to it, to represent the movement of equipment off of Camp Pendleton by rail during Desert Storm.

- blackdog

The pictures I've seen of those particular tanks don't indicate that they'd really be feasible for such a trade given their condition (ours is operational). Plus, it's a private museum - an exchange between them and us with an armored vehicle isn't possible as far as I know.

There is one M60A1 with reactive armor, supposedly with Desert Storm combat history, at 4th Tank Battalion in San Diego. However, given who they are, and that they have a concrete pad underneath it, it's unlikely that they would be all too supportive of a swap. But the day that some officer decides that they no longer want it rusting in their front yard is the day we'll be there with a 9-axle truck to pick it up!

In addition, it pains me to think about some of the opportunities our museum missed out on in its infancy: for at least a decade, and up until about five years ago, there were at least 5 M60A1's with reactive armor sitting in a range storage lot on Camp Pendleton. The hatches had been left open, rained into, and surrounding brush had caught fire more than once... but overall, they were still great museum candidates. Unfortunately, at that time, we did not have the resources, the equipment, or the connections to recover them. I think that they were pulled out and trucked to 29 Palms as target vehicles. In the end, we did end up with an AVDS1790 from one of them though...



Our eventual goal is to acquire a DODX flatcar to put between our locomotive and (soon-to-be-ours) camouflage caboose. We will be putting the gutted-but-presentable M60A1 that we do have on to it, to represent the movement of equipment off of Camp Pendleton by rail during Desert Storm.

Blackdog,

You are probably correct about the condition of the vehicles at Chiraco Summit. They look to have been parts machines, and all are missing (sometimes important) bits. I've noticed that all seem to be missing their range finders, and probably the sights and other optics are gone.

As for trading...my understanding is that those tanks remain the property of Uncle Sugar, regardless of whose possession they happen to be in. Recent experience shows that the museum with the best sales-pitch can steal away even valued artifacts, and these aren't all that valued. They might be a restoration project, but there are still plenty of guys around with the knowledge and interest to work on them. Parts are still around too, I'm sure.

C