It’s a relatively common sight (at least here in America). You drive by a public park or memorial and they have a tank or a plane or an artillery piece on display.
I’m assuming that all of this military equipment has been disabled beyond use. And I’m assuming these are genuine former military equipment and not replicas.
So how do the parks obtain these displays? Do they purchase them directly from the military? Are there brokers that buy up surplus items and then resell them to the parks?
Are there rules on who can buy this stuff? If I wanted to put an old tank on my front lawn, could I do so?
Do not need answer fast. I’m pretty sure parking a tank on my lawn would violate my lease.
I’m not sure this is that common, I haven’t seen it a whole lot.
The military decommissions equipment a lot, and sells if off if they don’t scrap it (or in olden times, nuke it).
There are very few rules to buying military equipment, even if in an operable condition. The big restriction is on buying fireable munitions, they’re usually an NFA controlled item. Not just the US either, you can own armored vehicles in the UK, though I can’t comment on the paperwork invovled.
Just off the top of my head, I can think of a few. There’s a tank in a park near my high school. There’s a fighter plane, that used to be on display at military base (the public could see if from the road), which is now at a post office.
Both the local American Legion hall and VFW post have early-20th century field artillery pieces out front. Both have the barrels plugged with cement and the breech welded closed.
There used to be an M26 Pershing in a park in a nearby city. IIRC they welded down anything that could move on it.
There is a fighter jet in the park near my house. It’s unexpected because I live in a rural area and I’ve always thought it was cool and interesting. The plane is 1950s vintage and I did some research on it when I first moved here.
It was a naval plane and it turns out neither the park nor the town owns it - rather, it’s on loan from the Navy. The town is responsible for upkeep and they have to meet some sort of standard. If it’s not cared for properly, the Navy could take it back.
I did a FOIA request using the bureau number and got the plane’s history. It was mostly used in flight test and training but is painted to honor the Blue Angels, including a pilot’s name under the canopy. In a pretty amazing coincidence, it turned out my uncle served on an aircraft carrier with that guy as his commanding officer! He was still alive at the time and I was able to get in touch with him.
I don’t know if they do that in the States, but here in Canada, I sometime ride my motorcycle by two retired military vehicles, one in Smith Falls, Ontario and one in Lancaster.
There was a short news article a few year ago that explained that those communities got those vehicles because a Canadian soldier from there died in active duty, in these two cases. I seem to remember that it was in Afghanistan.
I do not know who is responsible for maintaining the sites.
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I’ve seen this in VFW buildings and military bases but I can recall ever seeing anything like that in a regular park in America (I’ve lived in California and the DC metro)
It might vary a bit from the US but things like artillery pieces in parks and war memorials are looked after by whoever looks after the park generally - its just another thing. And that’s why they are often made safe to the point of damaging their significance as pieces of historical memoria.
In Australia the RSL [Returned Services League] is very localised with a club in every second suburb or town. They would be consulted with by the local council who own the park about upkeep of anything remotely resembling a war memorial, since they are also the focus of annual memorial events.
Their memorials are often things like pillars with the names of those who served or fell in the different wars, but can also include pieces of artillery [planes and tanks are very rare here], a memorial garden or plantings or pavilion.
When I was a kid in the early 1970s there was a Korean War era fighter jet in Lions Park (Costa Mesa, CA). You could climb into the cockpit (no canopy) or wiggle your way into the engine tube. Lots of jagged aluminum edges and a surface that would leave burns in the summer. It was eventually coated in concrete and the engine tube sealed up.
When I was a kid I remember ads in magazines for military surplus equipment–including jeeps and tanks–for ridiculously low prices. I assumed even at the time that the weapons were non-functional (and the shipping prices considerable). I don’t remember aircraft and anti-aircraft guns advertised, but it wouldn’t suprise me if those were available cheap then, too.
I can think of three reasonably nearby displays: a tank, a fighter jet on a plinth, and a large anti-aircraft gun. The gun in in front of a VFW, I think the other two are at parks (though possibly not, they are that kind of thing that has always been there so you don’t pay much attention).
Larsen Park in San Francisco had 3 different jets (F-9 Cougar, FJ-2 Fury and a F-8 Crusader) between 1959 and 1993. You couldn’t miss them if you drove down 19th Avenue. They were a big attraction for the kids in the neighborhood. Safety concerns and restoration costs led to the removal of the Crusader in '93. It took 12 years to get a replacement…not a real jet, but a kid-safe facsimile that the local kids seems pretty happy with.
We must have grown up fairly close to each other. The article mentions the FJ Fury at Cabin John park, which I remember playing on several times up through elementary school.
That’s one of my local parks, Wheaton (I took my kids there just yesterday). I guess they’ve been phased out before I moved to the states (I moved to the US in 2003 and to Maryland in 2019)
And I’ve never been to a regular park with military equipment in it
That park was great!
They had a trashcan that looked like an elephant, and had a vacuum system, so when you put your trash at the end of its trunk, it would suck it up.
They also had a small train, that was always full of kids being carried around the park.
