Army Plans To Close Many Museums

The U.S. Army announced on June 4 that it will close about 29 museums on military bases and other facilities during the next three years as part of a major overhaul of the Army museum system.  These museums showcase the history and legacies of major historic units, branches, bases and weapons.

Rock Island Arsenal Museum

Army museums are overseen by the Center of Military History, under its Army Museum Enterprise directorate, and take several forms: 33 traditional museums open to the public with curated displays; four properties dubbed training support facilities, which are generally attached to major training schools and open to soldiers while training in major disciplines like artillery or infantry; and two major warehouses in Alabama and Virginia which house the vast majority of the system’s 540,000 artifacts — the historical weapons, uniforms, vehicles and other objects with educational value or historical value.  The museums also oversee a collection of 60,000 archived documents.  Only about 1% of the Army’s artifacts are on display at any time in the museums and historians and curators regularly create exhibits from the vast pool of stored artifacts.  The National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, is also overseen by the Center of Military History, but its budget, staffing and exhibit spaces supposedly will not be affected by the round of closures.

Army officials claimed that increasing maintenance costs and aging buildings — but not DOGE — are behind the Army plan.  James Vizzard, the deputy executive director of the Army Center for Military History at Fort McNair stated that “We have more museum footprint than we can support and that is the bottom line.  We can keep the museums open, but we cannot present a museum experience our visitors deserve and, frankly, our workforce deserves.” 

One of the driving factors in the reduction plan is the state of the aging facilities and the increasing costs associated with maintaining them.  Many Army museums, explained Vizzard, occupy older buildings on a base, leading to high maintenance costs.  If the Army were to repair and update the over 100 buildings that Army museums now occupy, Vizzard stated, the cost could run to $65 million.  By comparison, the total annual operating budget for all 41 museums, he said, is $35 million.  Leaky roofs and bad HVAC, he said, make for bad experiences for visitors and also can damage exhibits.

Under the Army’s plan, some museums will be closed outright and others will be consolidated.  For example, three smaller museum facilities currently in Virginia, will be consolidated while a fourth is closed.  The U.S. Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, the Quartermaster Museum and the Ordnance Training Support Facility at Fort Gregg-Adams near Richmond will be consolidated in a single facility under the theme of Army Sustainment at Fort Gregg-Adams.  The U.S. Army Women’s Museum at Gregg-Adams will be closed and its exhibits might be sent to other museums.

Public-private partnerships are also being considered.  These may follow the model of the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Rock Island Arsenal Museum

U.S. Army

Unfortunately, Rock Island, with its superb small arms collection, is on the chopping block, despite having reopened in 2023 after an extensive renovation and upgrading.  The Rock Island Arsenal Museum originally opened on July 4, 1905 as The Ordnance Museum at Rock Island Arsenal.  It is the nation’s second oldest Army museum after West Point, 

According to a draft proposal obtained by TASK and PURPOSE:

Bases and facilities where the Army is proposing to keep museums open:

Museums set to close at these bases:

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point

Fort Huachuca, Arizona

U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii in Honolulu

Fort Lewis, Washington

Fort Gregg Adams, Virginia

White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Fort Carson, Colorado

Fort Cavazos, Texas

Fort Riley, Kansas

Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri

Fort Bliss, Texas

Fort Campbell, Kentucky

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

Fort Jackson, South Carolina

Fort Knox, Kentucky

Fort Benning, Georgia

Fort Stewart, Georgia

Fort Novosel, Alabama

Fort Drum, New York

Fort Sam Houston, Texas

Fort Hamilton, New York

Fort Sill, Oklahoma

Rock Island, Illinois

Fort Eustis, Virginia

Camp Humphreys, South Korea

Vilseck, Germany