A Visit to the ADA TSF

When I visited Fort Sill back in 2019, I was very impressed by the Field Artillery Museum, but less impressed by the museum for the Air Defense Artillery. But they were in the process of moving to a new facility, and I knew it would be very cool if it was anywhere near as good at the artillery version. Unfortunately, when it finally opened, it was declared to be a Training Support Facility, which is like a museum except that for inscrutable bureaucratic reasons, it isn't open to the public. This was annoying, but I finally got in touch and the curator, Correy Twilley, was kind enough to show me around.

The Corregidor display at the TSF

The facility is new, and still far from complete, but even in its current state, it's an excellent look at the development of American ground-based air defense.¹ When you walk in, there's a lovely dioramacontextual training aid of a 3" M3 AA gun on Corregidor at the beginning of WWII, where the ADA gained its motto of "First to Fire". Then it starts with weapons of WWI, including the only example of the 3" M1918 left in the world. Oh, and because it's a TSF, they don't have to demilitarize stuff, so it's still operational, and could be used if Ft. Sill was attacked by biplanes. Next up was WWII, including a complete set of German 88mm AA guns (although not all were on display) as well as a lot of examples of supporting equipment like radar, searchlights, and tractors. There's also an extensive display on Pearl Harbor, discussing the things that went wrong there, and the lessons that the modern ADA needs to learn as it once again deals with a threat in the Pacific.

The Rheintochter

Then it was into the missile age, where we got some extremely interesting items. There was a V-1, a V-2, a Rheintochter and a Wasserfall, all captured by the 3rd Armored Division from the Nordhausen factory in the closing days of WWII. The latter two are early examples of surface-to-air missiles, and only a handful of each exist in the world. Then it was on to US systems, with all three members of the Nike family, Spartan, Sprint, Hibex, HAWK, basic Patriot and PAC-2, not to mention an original cutaway Nike-Ajax training aid. Oh, and there were some fire-control trailers from a mobile Nike battery, which had been locked up in the early 80s with the last fire mission still written in grease pencil on the boards. It was really, really cool.

The Sergeant York prototype

Then it was time to look at other paraphernalia of the Cold War. There were examples of everything from reasonably common stuff like Dusters, Chaparral² and HAWK radars to really rare stuff, like a Mauler prototype (apparently, I was the first person to actually know what that was and find it exciting) and 37mm gatling guns, the biggest ever built. More recent stuff is often one-of-a-kind, the result of the neglect of US air defenses from the early 2000s through February of 2022. For instance, the museum has the only examples of the Bradley Linebacker and LAV-AD, as both were retired and the existing vehicles converted for other uses. And then there's the delightfully weird stuff, like a section of the first SCUD shot down in Desert Storm and one of only a handful of Fliegerfausts, a German shoulder-fired multiple rocket launcher intended to shoot down planes. But the highlight of this section is one of the few remaining Sergeant York prototypes. An extremely sophisticated system built around a couple of 40mm L70 Bofors, it was intended to protect the Army of the 80s from Soviet helicopters and aircraft, but a particularly disastrous trial saw an angry Congress cancel the program.³

The remains of the first plane the ADA downed

The museum is still mostly just vehicles and other big stuff, as Correy is still building things out. He said that only 6% of the collection (by number, not by mass) is on display, as opposed to about 30% at more typical museums. But he was kind enough to take us into the back area and show us some of the stuff that isn't on display yet. There was the German flag and camp commander's pennant from Nordhausen. There was the German insignia from the first plane the ADA ever downed (in 1917, with small arms fire). There were banners from an ADA unit on Corregidor, sent out by submarine just before the surrender. And an original map stamped BIGOT, which gave him an opportunity to explain that the ADA units for the 82nd and 101st Airborne came ashore with the engineers on D-Day, which I hadn't known.

The POW flag on display

But the most interesting artifact was actually on display. It was an American flag, made in a POW camp near Hiroshima from pieces of food package parachutes using a stolen sewing machine. It was raised over the camp on August 18th, 1945, well before any American units landed, making it the first American flag raised over Japan after their surrender. They also had the bugle the POWs used during the raising. I really love artifacts like that.

It was a very cool day, and thanks again to Correy for having us. He said they do occasional outreach events, so if you're interested, check out the TSF's website.

An MLRS in the new gallery at the Field Artillery Museum

We also took the opportunity to go by the Field Artillery Museum, which is right next door. Since our last visit, they've gotten the third gallery open, this one covering WWII to the present. There were sections on Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and the War on Terror, with a superb collection of vehicles and equipment from each. It's done to the same high standard as the other two galleries, packed with small artifacts and explanations of what is going on. Several of the self-propelled systems even had the interiors dressed with mannequins and equipment, and on the whole, the museum is an even stronger recommendation than it was when I went five years ago. And if you come in through OKC, let me know, as I'd love to grab lunch or something.