VMMV

Forwarded from another list of mine:

<snip> offered to host our October meeting. Why? He lives near a millionaire
who runs The VA Museum of Military Vehicles that buys and reconditions WW2
tanks! He even bought and reconditioned a Stug IIIG that was buried and
preserved (even the paint) in a Russian River.
Their website is http://vmmv.org/
<snip> I can tell you a little bit about the VMMV collection. I would guess
they have maybe 40 vintage military vehicles. Most are U.S., but there's also
a pretty large collection of Russian tanks as well as quite a few British, a
few German, and some other oddballs. Possibly the weirdest of the lot is a
Swedish "S" tank (or, more correctly, 3 of them). From previous trips, I
recall a beautifully restored
cast-hull Sherman, a couple AmphTracs, a Hetzer, an M5 Stuart that
runs like a top, several versions of U.S. half-tracks, couple Bren
carriers, etc. As far as I know, there is only one tank in the
collection that doesn't run.  It's a French FT-17 (well, not quite --
it's a FT-17 version build under license in the US).  Anyway, you get
the idea.

Oh, the location. VMMV is sort of south of Manassas. Roughly halfway between
Manassas and Dumfries, off state route 234.

There is another collector like this in the SF Bay area, Tigers, Panthers,
Stugs! Oh My! IIRC he has over 40 AFV as well as trucks. The story goes that
he obtained a SCUD launcher truck (no missile) but Customs would not let it
in.

Michael Brown

[quoted original message omitted]

> --- Laserlight <laserlight@quixnet.net> wrote:

> I can tell you a little bit about the VMMV

I went to one of their open houses back in Fall of 1998, when their guest
speakers were General Kalishnikov (yes, THAT General Kalishnikov) and a Brit
light colonel.

Wow. That's all I really have to say about the experience. Wow.