Published: November 02, 2009 10:30 pm      

A tank-tough job

Vietnam-era Scorpion getting body makeover before transfer to memorial

Cannonsburg — A special addition to the Boyd County War Memorial is expected to arrive at Armco Park in time for Veterans Day.

The Vietnam-era M56 Scorpion that once sat in Ashland’s Central Park is currently undergoing a meticulous refurbishing and, once completed, transfer to the memorial.

The project has long been a dream of the Cannonsburg Optimist Club and its president Eulas Hayes. Thanks to the generosity of two local businesses, which donated materials and hundreds of hours of labor, it’s finally coming to fruition.

On Friday, Hayes paid a visit to the Scorpion, still in the midst of its facelift in a Whayne Supply Company garage in Cannonsburg.

“There it is. It will look good up there,” said Hayes.

“You’re doing a good job,” he told a cadre of Whayne Supply officials on hand to inspect the progress.

At the time Hayes visited, welders Darryl “Junior” Vance and Tim Thompson were hard at work fabricating and welding new aluminum panels in place on the tank.

Vance, 32, said he used to play on the tank as a child during school field trips to Central Park. “I remembered it when they brought it here,” he said.

“This is history,” Vance said, adding he feels proud to be part of a project honoring local veterans.

“I couldn’t do what they have done. I don’t think I could have ever gone through what they have gone through. They’ve seen some rough times,” said Vance.

Vance’s grandfather is a 100-year-old World War II veteran who saw combat in the South Pacific.

“I like to help the veterans out,” Thompson said, adding he has a cousin who served in the Air Force during the Gulf War.

Welding the tank has been a challenge for the men because it is constructed entirely out of aluminum — a metal they don’t work on often at Whayne.

“It’s trickier to weld,” said Thompson, who has had lots of experience welding the softer metal at other jobs.

“Anything that needed cut out and replaced, that’s what we’re doing — fitting, measuring, cutting, welding, that’s what we’ll do in here. These other guys, they are doing all the sandblasting and painting,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he will also secure the Scorpion’s 90MM gun in place so it can not move.

Vance and Thompson are just two of approximately half dozen Whayne Supply employees who are expected to spend approximately 400 man hours restoring the tank before the project is completed, according to Robert Hay, the shop’s foreman.

Huntington Steel donated the aluminum for the project.

Once the welders have finished securing the gun and new panels, it will be sand-blasted and repainted in the official military olive drab. The Kentucky National Guard donated the paint, according to Whayne service manager Tony Barnett.

“We try to help whatever way we can,” he said of the project. Barnett, who is an Army veteran, said the Scorpion was in desperate need of the facelift by the time it came to them.

During its time in Central Park it had deteriorated considerably and pieces were literally crumbling off when workers first began stripping down the machine to restore it.

Inside they found a considerable amount of trash, cigarette butts and beer and pop tabs. The debris had been dropped piece by piece into the artillery unit during the decades it sat in Central Park.

Then workers made a big discovery. The Cadillac engine and transmission was still inside the unit.

Nicknamed SPAT for self-propelled anti-tank, the Scorpion was manufactured from 1953 to 1959 by the Cadillac Motor Car Division of General Motors.

“We didn’t have a clue until we pulled the old plates off to straighten them that it was still in there,” said Barnett, “Normally they pull that out.” He said they left the parts inside.

Once the restoration is complete, Whayne Supply employees will transport the Scorpion to Armco Park for installation on a concrete pad in front of the war memorial. Whayne Supply also moved the unit from Central Park to their facility approximately three weeks ago.

It is unclear, according to Hayes, how the unit came to be in Central Park. He said city officials could not provide him with any documentation about this specific piece of machinery when they transferred its ownership to the Boyd Fiscal Court. U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms regulations require it to be owned by a government body.

According to military historians, the tank saw combat in Vietnam and was deployed with several Airborne Brigade.

Hayes said the addition of the Scorpion will bring the Optimists closer to reaching their goal of upgrading the memorial at Armco Park to something everyone can be proud of.

“We’ve done a lot out there in two and a half years,” he said. “That right there,” he said, motioning toward the Scorpion, “is going to bring the show to our war memorial to where people notice it.

“They’ve just saved us so much time and money,” Hayes said of the Whayne Supply and Huntington Steel. He said he has no idea how long it would have taken the club to raise the funds to complete the project.

The Cannonsburg Optimist Club plans to purchase a replica of a Civil War cannon to place at the memorial to honor both Union and Confederate soldiers from Boyd County.

To raise the $12,000 needed for the cannon the club is selling bricks to commemorate all Boyd County soldiers. Each brick costs $100 and can be engraved with up to 15 letters on each of three lines. The bricks are being installed at the base of the memorial.

To purchase a brick or make a donation to the War Memorial call Hayes at (606) 922-6245 or (606) 928-6245.

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.