Tank museum will be staying in Danville

Tank museum will be staying in Danville

The American Armored Foundation’s Tank Museum will be staying at its present location in Blairs, Virginia. “The museum only had 7,000 visitors last year and had planned to move to Ohio this year, but funding fell through,” said the director Karen Gasser. The proposed new location would have been close to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and would have drawn more visitors than its present location. It would have taken two trains to move the 118 tanks and artillery housed at the museum to a new location and the expense was more than expected.

The Tank Museum has the most extensive collection of tanks, artillery, weapons, headgear, uniforms medals and military memorabilia in the United States.  The majority of this collection is owned by William and Karen Gasser.  The Gassers moved their collection from New York to Danville in 1999.

The goal of the AAF is to collect, restore and display as many military artifacts as possible in hopes of preserving a significant part of military history for others to enjoy. This collection is also a memorial to the sacrifices made by men and women to allow us freedom. Visitors should plan to spend several hours at the museum to see this immense collection. The museum is open from 10 to 4 pm on Saturday in January-March and 10 to 4pm on Friday and Saturday in April-December. The admission is $12 for adults, $10 under 12 and over 60, and 4 & under is free.