Tobyhanna's Openhouse AAR
Friday 0830
'FormerNewMVGuy' rolled into my Motorpool to convoy up to the Depot. Gave our things the once over and headed out for an all Back Roads 24 mile scenic mini Convoy up the mountain to Tobyhanna Army Depot. We rolled into the Depot bout 0945 and were welcomed by the guards with a quick and friendly once over of ID's and in we went.
Found the set up area all layed out with signs for the different decades listed for Historic MV's.
There were only 3 vehicles in those sections and a couple Tracked APCS, 151's, and 2 Vietnam Era Helo's in what I can only guess was the VIP-MV parking area, removed from the other MV parking.
So that made a total of 5 Historic MV's in the non-VIP section and a whole bunch of empty spaces in a 'very large parking lot'! Weather was warm & muggy with a light breeze. Not to long after we arrived, Frank from Canada rolled in with his 1008 & trailer with a 250 on it. Shortly after him, Don rolled in with his M-37 & Dan showed up with his bobber. We all hung out for the rest of the day and waited for others to roll in, but that never happened...we're now up to 8 Historic MV's out of the expected 70 registered.
It's was obvious the folks at the depot had gone to great lengths to prepair for this Openhouse. There were large & small tents set up all around the GIANT parking lot we were in and in another location, we never got to see, there was more of the same.
At 1500 we were told the BBQ's Ribs & other goodies we were smelling cook all day, were gonna be ready if we wanted to buy ourselves some supper. Around 1505 we started walking across the lot to the food section while the clouds darkened. We just about made the Mess Tent when we got hit with a Micro Burst of wind, the likes of which I'd never experienced, and almost 50% of the tents that were set up and all the marking tape in the MV parking areas was blown AWAY!!! It distroyed all the tents that got blown away and damaged some of those left standing. We watched a very large 30'X20' tent with 8-200+lb. cement block anchors get blown down the parking lot 25'(still erected) into 2 civilian pick ups, then collapse over top of them in a twisted mass. Amazingly, outside of the 2 pickups, only one APC in the VIP section was struck by debris and got a few scratches. 'Hawkman's' deuce (one of the orginal 3 that were there when we arrived) was wrapped in red & yellow parking lot tape like a mummy but sustained no damage. We were shocked and amazed at what had just taken place, along with thankfull nothing was destroyed, other than some tents. After that we had sprinkels for about 45 min. then everything setteled down and cooled off the rest of the night for us.
Friday 1600
The men & women of the Depot MWR Teams had their work cut out for them though. First they gathered up all the tents & wreckage, hauled it away. Then they rounded up all the tables, signs & chairs that were blown to who knows where and set about putting everything back up in place. These young folks had it back up and ready for the next days Openhouse by dark!!!
Our hats are off to all those MWR & Depot folks for doing a very unenviable job with dedication and determination!!!!
Saturday 0530
Rolled outta the 'WackyShack' expecting to see all kinds of overnight arrivals, only to find we were still the only 8 there?! Couldn't believe our eyes and started to wonder if this may prove to be a bust. After a coffee & cinnamon bun breakfast we sat back and waited for others to arrive. About 0700 they started rolling in. Mostly spectacular cars for the car show, but a 'FEW MV's' showed up too.
When the gates opened at 0830 there were hundred's of Show Cars, maybe 30 MV's tops. Then came the Thousands of happy, friendly visitors for the remainder of the day.
The MV turnout was so poor they had us in the non-VIP section pick up our set ups mid morning and moved us all to part of one row and used our orginal section for overflow parking. The visitors were great, they really appreciated our vehicles & displays, but were somewhat dismayed at the LACK of MV's, as was I.
(I intend to address this in another thread here on Steel Soldiers that will be titled "Commitment has Responsibilities".)
The base gave tours of the facility, there was live music, Show Cars, Humvee Rides, Black Knights did 2 spectacular jumps, Active Duty Troops gave Fitness & Weapons Demonstrations, food, souvenirs, and 30 Historic MV's.
There was to be a MV parade at the end of things, but me & 'FormerNewMVGuy' pulled out about 1530 to beat the mass exoidus when things wrapped up so someone else can fill ya in on how that went. There were also several folks from the various MV clubs that came (less vehicles) to lend a hand and we can't thank them enough for there assistance and support throughout the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The MV clubs I saw represented were RedBall Military Transport Club, MTA of North Jersey Club, NY-Penn Military Vehicle Collectors Club, and individuals from Canada, Maryland, New Hampshire, NewYork, NewJersey, & of course Pa..
While the fact that LESS Than 50% of those MV's registered bothered to show up, it was still a great Openhouse event! The men and women of the Tobyhanna Army Depot displayed in grand fashion, exactly how they've been able to endure 100 years and still remain our nations "Premiere Military Electronics Repair Facility".
I won't be around for the 200th., but I hope by then, those that are, will stand by their commitment to attend, like the folks at the Tobyhanna Army Depot did to their commtment to put on this show and provide our troops with only the best electronics equipment produced!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I won't be able to bring the 1008 due to it not being inspected so I can only do three for this event...looking forward to a day off Saturday and having some fun!
