Photo By Scott Sturkol | A scene of Equipment Park is shown May 20, 2023, at Fort McCoy, Wis. Equipment Park is...... read more read more
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July 2023 will be another observance of National Picnic Month across the United States, and Fort McCoy’s Equipment Park in the installation’s historic Commemorative Area has picnic tables.
The Equipment Park was established in the mid-1990s to complement the Commemorative Area’s historical representation, said former Fort McCoy Public Affairs Officer Linda Fournier, who was responsible for the Commemorative Area from 1992 to 2015.
What began as an initial outdoor display of five pieces of equipment (“macro-artifacts”) increased over time to what is today a display of 70 different items of equipment and vehicles.
“All of the items on display in the Equipment Park specifically were selected in keeping with our Commemorative Area mission statement: to present pieces of military equipment that are representative of what was used here on Fort McCoy,” Fournier said in 2015.
Public Affairs Officer Tonya Townsell with the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office who now leads the public interaction with the Commemorative Area and Equipment Park, said the park offers a great spot for picnicking.
“The Equipment Park is always open for those who have Fort McCoy access, and there are picnic tables available to use on the outer edges of the park for people to use,” Townsell said. “We also have days where the park is open to the public. People can find out those hours by following the Fort McCoy Facebook page.”
According to daysoftheyear.com, there’s a lot of things people can do to enjoy a picnic.
“Summer picnics are a great way to enjoy the outdoors and each other’s company,” the web site states. “When the weather gets warmer and the rains of spring have abated, the outdoors are beckoning all those adventurous families who are out to have fun in the sun. Local parks have finally come out from under the pall of cloud gray skies, and picnics can begin in earnest. Sausage rolls and fried chicken, fresh fruit and lemonade — these are the hallmarks of a great meal out of doors. National Picnic Month encourages you to get out and celebrate the warm summer days and find your love and wonder of the outdoors again while enjoying some great food.”
Then maybe people can enjoy the outdoors at the Equipment Park. It is an outdoor display of historic and present-day equipment representative of the types used on the installation. It has everything represented from a Sherman tank of World War II to a High-Mobility Multi-Wheeled Vehicle that was used in more recent years. The area also includes helicopters, howitzers, trucks, trailers, and more.
The park is traditionally open between May and September. For more information, contact the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.
| Date Taken: | 06.15.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 06.15.2023 21:20 |
| Story ID: | 447355 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 206 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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