Photo By Scott Sturkol | A scene of Equipment Park is shown with early fall colors Sept. 29, 2023, at Fort...... read more read more
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As October arrives at Fort McCoy, the sight of leaves changing from green to the vibrant colors of red, orange, and yellow can be seen throughout the Fort McCoy Commemorative Area and Equipment Park.
The Equipment Park was established in the mid-1990s to complement the Commemorative Area’s historical representation, stated 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 and is still growing.
“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.
Fournier also said that the most-recent park acquisitions were added in 2014, and the site has expansion capacity that can accommodate up to an additional 50 display items.
The Equipment Park 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.
Additionally, during October every year, the forested area in the backdrop of Equipment Park has offered a picturesque scene for visitors with fall colors.
Current Fort McCoy Public Affairs Officer Tonya Townsell said the park is traditionally open between May and September. For 2023, drive-in access will be available through the end of October.
“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.
“The area will be closed up for winter around early November.”
People can still walk into the park from outside the driving area after Nov. 1.
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: | 09.29.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 09.29.2023 18:11 |
| Story ID: | 454744 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 820 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Fort McCoy’s Equipment Park offers place to see history, fall colors during October, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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