Way, way O/T U.S. Army's vast collection of stuff

[machoneman]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bennyjohnson/inside-the-armys-spectacular-hidden-treasure-room

Ran across this quite by accident and I, like most, had no idea of this amazing collection of valuable stuff!

[cjshaker]

Wow! Simply amazing. As a huge military and gun enthusiast my mouth watered seeing those immaculate Revolutionary and Civil War muskets and WWII Springfields, let alone the handgun collection. I can only imagine the other pieces in there.

I know there are massive military warehouses full of just about anything you can think of, but never knew they had a historical collection.

Thanks for the cool post.

[sjmodels]

I can't help but think that if they sold all that stuff to private collectors at auction they could build a V.A. Hospital with the money and operate it with the funds they are using to keep this facility open .
Would seem like a much better use of the money?

[fe66comet]

Many items are seized in war time, like when Adolf Hitler ordered the destruction of all art and documents.not related to his agenda. In modern days many items have been seized in war time from wealthy leaders and drug lords who buy items on the black market. Leaders of regimes as we all know commonly surround themselves with lavish items to  support their image of wealth and power. Unfortunately many items become hidden and obscure due the govements policy of plausible deniability. Hard to say what we do and do not know from history due to a piece missing, deemed too damaging to controlled the masses.

[mlcraven]

I'm surprised the effort to raise funds to build a public gallery to display this phenomenal art collection isn't more highly publicised.  But then again, maybe the 'powers that be' are concerned about the optics of building such a thing during a time of fiscal austerity and massive cutbacks to the US Army.  And based on what I've seen of other major museum and art gallery projects, $175M seems low.

[lovehamr]

In a past life I had the opportunity to go through some warehouses at Anniston Army Depot and was floored by some of the history that was boxed up there, like crates of M1919s stacked 15 feet high and had to be 100 yards long or more.  Just staggering. Makes you wonder what the hell else is out there.