FORT RILEY, Kan. -- There's more to making a piece of military hardware a display than parking it in a nice spot and walking away.
Especially if it's lethal, which an M1 Abrams tank certainly is.
Personnel of the Logistics Readiness Center, 1st Infantry Division Soldiers and Kansas National Guard technicians from the Maneuver Area Training Equipment Site at Camp Funston are preparing an M1 tank for display at one of Fort Riley's access control points as part of the observance of the 100th birthday of the 1st Infantry Division. The tank was transported by 1st Infantry Sustainment Brigade Soldiers from the Douthit Gunnery Complex to the LRC maintenance center, 8100 Normandy Drive, Feb. 15.
This tank might be traced to a shipment of 240 tanks from Germany to Fort Riley, in 1987 or 1988, said retired Sgt. 1st Class C.J. Kershner, quality assurance evaluator for the LRC.
"I was part of the fielding team back then," Kershner said. "And that group (of tanks) came into Funston (Camp Funston). So I think this might be one of those."
The process of preparing the tank, or any piece of Army weaponry for display involves what Kershner called de-militarizing, or "de-miling" the piece.
Everything that makes the tank dangerous, mobile and ready for war is removed or changed to render it safe.
"The de-miling process ends with the tank being welded shut," Kershner said. "Ideally we'd like to have all that done before we repaint it."
The surfaces of the tank also need to be descaled and grinded to remove old paint, rust and other signs of corrosion. Helping with these tasks were Spc. Van Ho, 1st Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., and Pfc. Mark Temol, 2nd Bn., 34th Armor Regt., 1st ABCT, 1st Inf. Div.
Ho was operating a grinder.
"I'm blending and smoothing old paint and helping to prepare the surface so the new paint will stick easily," Ho said.
Temol operated a descaler to remove old, loose paint, rust and other corrosion.
"We're just helping out in getting the tank ready," Temol said.
Once that work was complete, the tank was transported to the MATES facility to complete the de-miling process. Governed by army regulation, de-miling is a methodical process, Capt. Todd Stuke allied trade supervisor at MATES said.
"Everything that makes it a weapon has to be removed or modified," Stuke said. "That includes remove the engine and transmission, making the turret unable to move, modifying the gun tube so that it be can't be accessed either inside or outside the tank, draining or removing fluids, fuels and grease, and removing sensitive systems," Stuke said.
The tank is scheduled to be taken back to the LRC for paint and final preparations March 27. It will be taken to its display site, a process tentatively scheduled for between April 25 and 27, pending coordination between the 1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade and the Kansas Department of Transportation.
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