Thursday, August 23, 2018

Uraling to the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles

During my lunch hour today, I rode Scarlett about 15 miles down from the the nearby town of Cozad, NE to the town of Lexington, NE.

It's the home of the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles.  Not a big museum but a nice collection of military vehicles, most from the U.S., but with a few here and there from WWII Germany and this one motorcycle from Great Britain:

 BSA W-M20

 Kawasaki Military KLR 250-D8
Military designation: M1030

 German Army Schwimm-Wagen Type 166
Amphibious version of the Kuebelwagen
With a life expectancy of 4 weeks, very few survived WWII

Airborne Scooter
Cushman Model 53

 M3 Bradley CFV 
Cavalry Fighting Vehicle

 The cramped interior of the CFV



 The Mule 
designed late in WWII but deployed in Vietnam
here carrying a 106mm Recoiless Rifle

 M16 Halftrack with a quad .50 caliber gun assembly.
Designed as an anti-aircraft weapon, it was deadly against
ground troops as well.

There was a large assortment of Jeep models, belonging to all the services, but am showing just one here:

 The M151A2 model which was the one I rode in as a 
young Lieutenant back when there were still two Germanies.

 DUKW 
Amphibious Truck
I bet this would be a fun vehicle to have around.

 M2 Bradley IFV
Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

 M4A3 Sherman with a 90mm Cannon I believe

 M110A2 8" Self-Propelled Howitzer.
I trained with one of these in the Artillery Basic Officer Course.
Took two of us to manhandle the shell next to the breech!

As I headed back to the URRV to resume work, I stopped at this marker:


Apparently the town of Cozad was established along the 100th Meridian.  and they make sure you know it here in Cozad.  More info here:  LINK

The 100th Meridian has been considered the dividing line where east meets west. It has also been known as the dividing line between the moist portion of the eastern half of the United States and the dryer western half.  Source


The original sign placed by the Union Pacific Railroad alerted passengers 
that they were crossing the 100th Meridian
source: LINK

And, here's the sunset for the last evening of boondocking for this trip, I return home tomorrow.





4 comments:

RichardM said...

No M1030M1? I’d be interested in seeing one those. Their website has a picture of the front corner of a M422A1. We used to have one of those that I helped my brother get on the road.

redlegsrides said...

Only saw that one KLR, RichardM. As to the M422A1, no pics, sorry, the jeeps and variants didn’t really catch my eye.

SonjaM said...

Not much of a military person, Dom. I don't have a clue about related equipment. You boon docking site however is very beautiful.

redlegsrides said...

Thanks SonjaM, it wasn't half bad.....