DALE CITY, Va. — A new Americans in Wartime Museum hopes planes and tanks will draw automobiles.
Groundwork preparation for the $80 million facility has already begun on a 70-acre site behind a K-Mart store on Dale Boulevard in Dale City. The museum, once complete, will tell the story of people who fought in every U.S. war since World War I, as well as first responders on the homefront, featuring fully restored military vehicles, a “landscapes of war” exhibit that will allow visitors to experience what war fighting conditions were like on the ground and in the trenches, and the museum will feature tours and lectures led by wartime veterans.
When complete, The Americans in Wartime Museum will join the ranks of the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico and a planned Army museum at Fort Belvoir. Tourism officials have dubbed the stretch of Interstate 95 on which the museum will sit between Fairfax and Stafford counties Virginia’s “wartime corridor.”
“It’s also a very large site and, trust me, we’ll be able to take advantage of all 70 acres as you’ll see with a lot of the outdoor activities we have planned,” said museum spokeswoman Kathy Bentz.
The museum is the brainchild of Allen Cors whose collection of fully restored military vehicles, aircraft, as well as fire and rescue vehicles that were called to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, will be at the centerpiece in the museum’s collection. Those vehicles have been featured in recent years at an annual “tank farm” event in Nokesville, at a property the museum owns and will keep as a vehicle and exhibit maintenance facility.
“As long as I’m alive the tank farm will exist. We’ll use it for the nasty, dirty work of restoring vehicles, and we’ll save the cleaner work for the restoration buildings that will be on site for this museum,” said Cors.
Cors serves as the chief fundraiser for the organization and said, so far, $32 million has been spent on groundwork at the museum site and another $50 million must be raised before the attraction opens. A fully non-profit organization, Cors said he’s traveled the country to solicit donations for the museum. Once he receives another $30 million (60 percent of his final funding goal) buildings will begin popping up at the museum site, said Cors.
Overall, the museum plans to bring at least 50 jobs to the area, will provide opportunities for veterans to serve as docents, and will provide internship opportunities for students at George Mason University. The completed museum will also serve as a new gateway for the Dale City community.
Cors and others involved in the project said they will continue to collect artifacts for the museum, as well as spread the word to military members and veterans about the planned museum.
“This place is not about tanks, this is about people. It’s about telling their story,” said Cors.
