Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Military Trader

“When I picked this up at an auction near the former Casper Army Airfield in Wyoming, I viewed it as just something cobbled together by ‘Bubba’ from a surplus O2 bottle, and gave it no further thought,” says Stephen Crane. “But when I had it at the Plymouth, Calif. HMV show, I was told by another participant that he had an identical assembly that he had picked up in northern Washington, and he, too, thought his was a one-off. After actually looking at it, we realized that all the materials are aircraft related, and speculated that this was very probably an authorized, perhaps recommended, modification to give mechanics a portable compressed air source for tire inflation, etc. out on the flight line, and may have been a common sight in…

In June, the United States Army Center of Military History announced that it had begun consolidating and reducing the number of museums devoted to the service branch. The Army Museum Enterprise (AME) will consolidate the number of museums located throughout the country and abroad from 41 museum activities at 29 locations to just 12 field museums. “In the current AME, a substantial maintenance backlog and insufficient staffing prevent our museums from reaching their fullest potential as educational and historical resources. These challenges also pose a significant risk to our ability to care for the Army’s priceless artifact collection, which is one of the world’s largest,” the Center of Military History explained in a post on Facebook. “The future Army Museum Enterprise is designed to best support soldier training and public…

Military enthusiasts of the Civil War collect a variety of items associated with both Union and Confederate soldiers. This can include the uniforms, weapons, swords, and many the item from both sides of the conflict. It seems the collectibles of the Union soldier are more readily available, especially when it comes to medals and awards. The Civil War hostilities came to a halt with the articles of surrender agreement of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, at the Appomattox Court House, by General Robert E. Lee. The end of the war then became official with the surrender of the CSS Army of the Shenandoah on Nov. 6, 1865. The first phase of the surrender was captured in a painting titled “Furling the Flag” (1872) by Richard Norris Brooke.…

On October 17 of this year, the Michigan Military Technical and Historical Society held the dedication ceremony for its newly installed 20-ton tank monument. The museum, located in the Detroit suburb of Eastpointe, had worked for the past decade to acquire a vehicle from the United States Army for permanent display. “It is a process to get a monument vehicle from the U.S. Army,” said Chris Causley, president of the society. However, the effort paid off when the Army agreed to “loan” the museum an M8 Armored Gun System (AGS), a light tank that FMC Corporation developed as a potential replacement for the M551 Sheridan and TOW missile-armed Humvees used by the 82nd Airborne Division and 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, respectively. “It is a very significant moment for the society,”…

In 1917 Fritz Neumeyer, together with Friedrich Krupp and the company of Thiel, established the manufacturing company Zunder und Apparatebau GmbH, to supply the German Army with ammunition and parts for weapons. After Germany’s defeat in World War I in 1918, the company became known by the shortened title of Zundapp, leaving Neumeyer as the sole trader. Economically it was a tough time for German industry, but by 1921 Neumeyer had re-launched the company as a motorcycle manufacturer and revealed its first design in the same year. That was the Z22, known as the “Motorrad fur Jadermann” (motorcycle for everyone), which proved to be successful and helped the company increase its share of the market for motorcycles from 5% in 1931 to more than 18% by 1937. During this period…

A MELIA ISLAND, Fla. —The Earnest family vacation this past summer included a little something out of the ordinary for my clan. We actually did something productive — for one day, anyway. In between lounging on the beach and around the pool, playing golf and gorging on scores of shrimp tacos, we found time during our week in fabulous Amelia Island, Fla., to spend a morning at historic Fort Clinch State Park. It turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. Although it was never a spot of actual fighting or true hostilities during wartime, Fort Clinch has long been an important spot in northeast Florida. It is located on the Atlantic shore northeast of Fernandina Beach at the entrance to the Cumberland Sound. The spot of…

On a sunny Saturday last spring, the Military Vehicle Collectors Club of Michigan traveling road show assembled at the Pine Ridge Villas assisted living complex in Shelby Twp. Mich., to produce a USO veteran-themed event for the residents. The show featured a ceremony that kicked off with a 21-gun salute, followed by speakers from the military, Shelby Twp., the Women’s Army Corps Veterans Association, plus our club chaplin who offered a prayer. For a number of years now, the MVCCMI has paired with veterans organizations like the American Legion and the VFW to put together military vehicle shows, with varying levels of success. This event however, was the first time the club took the show to a senior housing facility. As some might suspect, the situation provided a “captive audience”,…