Artillery and Armour in the USA: Texas (5) Fort Hood, 3rd Cavalry Museum

Artillery, Tanks and Armoured Fighting Vehicles in Texas (Part 5), Fort Hood, 3rd Cavalry Museum

One of the aims of this website is to locate, identify and document every historical piece of artillery and all armoured fighting vehicles preserved in Texas. Many contributors have assisted in the hunt for these tangible pieces of our military history and the list you see here is constantly being revised as new finds are discovered and the data is updated. The photos have come from various contributors, but the author likes to "ground truth" the reports, so a good number of the photos are by the author unless otherwise credited. Any errors found here are by the author. It often happens that military monuments that are relatively mobile, have been moved for restoration or scrapped, sometimes they are repainted with different markings and serial numbers, or they are replaced with a different piece of kit. For those reasons, any additions, deletions, corrections or amendments that you may be able to add to this list of Artillery and AFVs in Texas would be most welcome and may be e-mailed to the author at hskaarup@rogers.com. The primary aim is preserve our military history and to keep the record accurate.

Fort Hood

Fort Hood is a U.S. military post located near Killeen, Texas. The post is named after Confederate General John Bell Hood. It is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about 60 miles (100 km) from each. Fort Hood is an installation of the United States Army and is the largest military base in the world (by area) with more than 215,000 acres. Its origin was the need for wide-open space to test and train soldiers equipped with Second World War tank destroyers.

The War Department announced the location in January 1942, and the initial completion was set for that August. As originally constructed, Fort Hood had an area of 158,706 acres (64,226 ha), with billeting for 6,007 officers and 82,610 enlisted personnel. The main cantonment of Fort Hood had a total population of 53,416 as of the 2010 U.S. Census.

Fort Hood is the home of III Corps, 1st Cavalry Division, 13th Sustainment Command, First Army Division West, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, 41st Fires Brigade, and many other Forces Command and other units. The Fort Hood main cantonment area, otherwise referred to as Main post, holds its own airfield, Hood Army Airfield.

The 4th Infantry Division previously located at Fort Hood moved to Fort Carson, Colorado, exchanging positions with several units. The 4th Infantry Division Museum closed at Fort Hood for the last time on 29 May 2009 to complete its move to Colorado although most of the outdoor pieces remained at Fort Hood as part of the new 3rd ACR Museum. (Wikipedia)

Fort Hood is home to the 1st Cavalry Division Museum, located in Building No. 2218, 761st Tank Battalion Avenue. It is open 9 am to 4 pm Monday to Friday, 10 am to 4 pm Saturday, and noon to 4 pm Sunday.

Fort Hood is also home to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment Museum, located in Building No. 409, 761st Tank Battalion Avenue. It is open 9 am to 4 pm Monday to Friday, 10 am to 4 pm Saturday, and noon to 4 pm Sunday.

3rd Cavalry Museum, Brave Rifles.

3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment Museum Artillery and Armour

IAV Stryker AFV (ICVV).

M551 Sheridan tank.

M1 Abrams MBT.

M103 Heavy Tank armed with 120-mm Main Gun.

Walker Bulldog light tank.

M47 Patton MBT.

M48 Patton MBT.

M60 Patton MBT.

M3 Stuart tank.

M3A1 Stuart tank.

M5A1 Stuart tank.

M3 Lee Medium tank.

M4A1 Sherman tank.

M4A3E8 Sherman tank.

M10 Wolverine Tank Destroyer.

(Author Photo)

The author served with 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group (4 CMBG) in Lahr, Germany (1989-1992). One of the marvelous things about driving the back roads within 50 km of Lahr on a day trip was the discovery of interesting vignettes of history at almost every turn. We were in France heading back to Lahr from Marckholsheim on a side road when we came upon this M10 Wolverine Tank Destroyer on a hardstand with its gun turret facing a small copse of trees on the other side of the road. There was an anti-tank shellhole right through the TD - clearly the crew had just seen the AT Gun, turned to fire, and was destroyed before it could shoot ca January 1945. There is a plaque mounted on the TD recording 5 soldiers died for France.

Audie Murphy won his Congressional Medal of Honor near Colmar, just south of this location. Murphy received the Medal of Honor for valour demonstrated at the age of 19 for single-handedly holding off an entire company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in January 1945, then leading a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition.