Armored Vehicle To Be Displayed At Ky. Memorial

CANNONSBURG, Ky. (AP) - Workers are pitching in to give a facelift to a Vietnam-era armored vehicle that soon will be on display at the Boyd County War Memorial in northeastern Kentucky.

The M56 Scorpion, a self-propelled anti-tank, once sat in Ashland's Central Park, where its pieces were literally crumbling off when workers began the restoration, The Daily Independent of Ashland reported.

Restoring the vehicle has long been a dream of the Cannonsburg Optimist Club. Darryl "Junior" Vance, who helped in fabricating and welding new aluminum panels on the vehicle, said he used to play on the vehicle as a child during school field trips to Central Park.

"This is history," said Vance, 32. Welding the vehicle was a challenge for workers at a Whayne Supply Company garage because the unit is constructed out of aluminum - a metal they don't work on often at the garage. "It's trickier to weld," said Tim Thompson, another welder on the project.

Vance and Thompson were among about a half dozen Whayne Supply employees expected to spend about 400 man hours restoring the tank before the project is completed, said Robert Hay, the shop's foreman.

Huntington Steel donated the aluminum for the project. Once the welders finished securing the gun and new panels, the next steps were to sand-blast the vehicle and repaint it in military olive drab. The Kentucky National Guard donated the paint, according to Whayne service manager Tony Barnett.

Workers discovered that the Cadillac engine and transmission was still inside the unit. The Scorpion was manufactured from 1953 to 1959 by the Cadillac Motor Car Division of General Motors, the newspaper said.

"We didn't have a clue until we pulled the old plates off to straighten them that it was still in there," Barnett said. "Normally they pull that out." Once the restoration is complete, Whayne Supply employees will transport the Scorpion to Armco Park for installation on a concrete pad in front of the war memorial.

It is unclear how the unit came to be in Central Park, said Optimist Club president Eulas Hayes. He said city officials could not provide him with any documentation about the vehicle when they transferred its ownership to the Boyd County Fiscal Court. U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regulations require it to be owned by a government body.

Hayes said the addition of the Scorpion will bring the Optimists closer to their goal of upgrading the memorial at Armco Park. The Optimists also plan to purchase a replica of a Civil War cannon to place at the memorial to honor Union and Confederate soldiers from Boyd County.

To raise the $12,000 needed for the cannon, the club is selling bricks to commemorate all Boyd County soldiers. Each brick costs $100. The bricks are being installed at the base of the memorial.

Information from: The Independent,

http://www.dailyindependent.com

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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