Deyampert Reynolds paints a display tank along Anniston Army Depot's Roosevelt Drive. Reynolds, who has nearly 10 years of experience as a depot painter, works as part of a three-man crew to scrape old, flaking paint from the display vehicles before ...

ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala. -- Throughout the installation they stand guard silently - ranging from small, one man tanks of wars long past to the hulking mass of a M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank.

Anniston Army Depot's display tanks line the installation's main road. They serve as a daily reminder to the workforce and visitors of past and present workload.

Currently, many of these historic pieces are receiving a facelift.

A three-man team from the depot's final paint shop, armed with a portable paint gun, sanders and manual scrapers, have been slowly working their way along Roosevelt Drive cleaning and repainting the tanks.

"Any flaking paint or chipped paint that is visible on the vehicle is scraped and sanded," said Julius Thomas, one of the depot's painters assigned to the squad.

After removing as much of the old paint as possible, the crew then blows all loose material from the vehicle and begins to paint.

Each vehicle will be painted based on the color scheme it is currently, meaning 18 tanks will remain green and one will continue to hold its tan hue.

"We do this on average once during each commander's time on the installation," said Shannon Elston, supervisor for the paint shop.

Elston said some vehicles, which have more intricate parts to paint or require more specialized care are brought to the shop for scraping, sanding and repainting, while the others are done on-site.

The vehicles and howitzers located near the depot's Headquarters Building were refinished in the paint shop a couple of years ago.

"We also paint a lot of museum pieces for other depots as well," said Elston.

The current project began Oct. 21. Already, more than five of the tanks are complete and the crew is working at a rate of approximately one vehicle every other day.

"They can almost accomplish one tank a day, but it depends upon the weather, which averages their time out to approximately one every other day," said Elston.

The display tanks serve as more than just something to catch the eye of travelers on Roosevelt, they are a piece of the installation's history, frozen in time as a reminder of where the depot has been.

"They are one of the impressions we have for our visitors," said Elston.