DON'T PANIC !!!
I visited on Thursday, Sept 1/05 and wanted to let you all know what has been happening ... and things have been.
Was too late (6pm) to talk to museum staff or tour any museum buildings but there have been many changes since my last visit.
Approximately 40 cement pads have been poured beside base roadways/parking lots and both armoured and softskin MVs are being placed on them. Obviously the two previous museum building demolitions have resulted in a change of plan for bringing the vehicles inside, out of the weather. Most have been given a thick coat of gloss green paint with gloss black camo stripes, not accurate but it will keep the rain off for years, I expect.
The captured artillery has been painted a gloss blue/grey and the cemented-in PAK guns have been jack-hammered out of their pads. New to the museum MVs include a Lepoard I, and 6x6 Cougar and Grizzly vehicles. The Hetzer is back outside in Worthington Park with a few other tanks. A Sherman and a Kiowa helicopter (on a plinth) now grace the Angus north base entrance. Some aircraft movement off of plinths has occurred and another CF-100 is under plastic wrap on the hanger line. Two more hangers have been restored/aluminium clad since my last visit. Also spotted a new (to me anyway) militarized civilian type truck on the flightline, approx. 4 ton with crew cab and the name "Sterling" on the front grille. Anyone know anything about these ?
Last but not least were 28 freshly dumped loads of topsoil across the road from the three remaining tank hangers of the museum. It seems that they have some budget money to spend and at least the old building floors will be out of sight (and hopefully, out of memory).
Life goes on.
Robert Dabkowski