Purple Heart tank moved to new site

The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn NEW HOME: Employees of Arkansas Aggregates use a CAT 988 wheel loader to maneuver the Purple Heart battle tank onto its new resting spot beside the Garland County Veterans Memorial and Military Park Friday. The tank, which was dedicated as a memorial in DeSoto Park in 1992, was moved so it would be in a more prominent location.
The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn NEW HOME: Employees of Arkansas Aggregates use a CAT 988 wheel loader to maneuver the Purple Heart battle tank onto its new resting spot beside the Garland County Veterans Memorial and Military Park Friday. The tank, which was dedicated as a memorial in DeSoto Park in 1992, was moved so it would be in a more prominent location.

While not as perilous as crossing hostile territory under enemy fire, moving a 40-ton tank across Hot Springs proved to be more of a challenge than anticipated Friday, but the community rallied and made it happen.

The Purple Heart battle tank, located since 1992 at DeSoto Park, was successfully moved to its new home at the Garland County Veterans Memorial and Military Park on Friday after several hours of effort by multiple volunteers, including Arkansas Aggregates, which did the heavy lifting.

"The community really pulled together to make this happen," Steve Smith, a longtime Veteran's Memorial Committee member who worked to organize the move, said Friday.

The planning process to move the tank began last year after the committee voted unanimously to move the M-60 A-1 battle tank that was acquired by the Military Order of the Purple Heart and dedicated as a memorial at DeSoto Park, located on Highway 7 near Gulpha Gorge Road, on Veterans Day 1992.

Smith, who served on a battle tank in Vietnam as part of the "Blackhorse" 11th Armed Cavalry, had said previously the main reason for moving the tank was its lack of visibility at DeSoto.

Smith said the initial hope was to have the tank moved prior to Veterans Day this year. With a $600 contribution from state Sen. Bill Sample, R-District 14, the committee purchased the materials to put in cement runners at the planned site beside the veterans memorial, located near Transportation Depot

Waiting for the tank to arrive at the memorial Friday, Sample said the decision to move the tank made perfect sense to him and he was glad to help.

"People don't see it down there," Sample said of the DeSoto location. "I was talking to one of the governor's staff about getting the National Guard to move it and he didn't even know we had a tank. It's been sitting out there 25 years, but this will be a beautiful spot for it. Everyone is excited about it. It's the perfect place."

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The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn MOVING DAY: Employees of Arkansas Aggregates on Thursday began moving the Purple Heart M-60 A-1 battle tank, which had been located at DeSoto Park since Veterans Day 1992, in preparation for transporting it to its new location at the Garland County Veterans Memorial and Military Park on Friday.

Organizers began making preparations to move the tank Thursday evening, using a CAT 988 wheel loader provided by Gilbert Garrett and Arkansas Aggregates to pull it forward off the concrete pad it had rested on. The tracks still turned and they were able to roll it around to the service road that runs behind the park in preparation for moving it out onto Gorge Road on Friday.

With Hot Springs police providing an escort and with constant drizzling rain, they began moving it shortly after 9:30 a.m. Friday, but immediately ran into trouble making the hard right turn coming off the service road behind the park. Smith said a chain came loose and they spent about 45 minutes getting everything sorted before they could get it straightened out and headed back toward Park Avenue.

The original plan was to pull the tank with a wrecker while also pushing it with the CAT from behind and to head down Park and Central avenues, through downtown, to Market Street and then on to Orange Street and the memorial.

Smith said they decided it would be too time consuming and would hamper traffic too much, with the potential for more extended hang-ups with future sharp turns, so they maneuvered it into the parking lot in front of DeSoto Park and loaded it onto a lowboy trailer and transported it to the memorial.

They arrived shortly after 2 p.m. and spent another hour or so maneuvering the tank backward onto the cement runners as the rain became heavier, but didn't seem to faze any of the volunteers involved in the effort.

"It's kind of fitting after everything we've done to get to this point that's it's pouring down rain," Smith said, laughing.

Several city officials, who had also given their stamp of approval to the proposed move, were on hand for the tank's arrival. Smith said the plan is to "fix it up, clean it up and repaint it" and "it should look like new."

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Hugh Mills, a Hot Springs native and former tank commander now living in Kansas City, Mo., who helped plan the move, is coming back to help with the rehabilitation of the tank, Smith said.

"We've got a bunch of volunteers who are going to help, too. We'll have it looking good."

Local on 12/23/2017

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