Day before yesterday, my friend Mike Emmert took me to a hidden gem in Montgomery County, the subject of todays blog, the Ropkey Armor Museum...Owned by yet another "Marine's Marine" in the person of Fred Ropkey...free will offering for admission and a great place to spend a morning or afternoon this winter or a warm day next summer...Just be careful going in the summer as you could get run over maybe by a tank...you see he has most all this stuff in good working order and sometimes gets them out on special occasions...maybe the 4th of July even, not sure did not spend a lot of time talking to Mr. Ropkey but did some...We exchanged our "semper fi's" and then the conversation kind of got lost in what a great job he had done gathering all this stuff up and bringing it all back to life, and displaying it in such a way that makes you think you may just be on a military base and not in the rolling hills of Montgomery County...Also shared with him that I has served in the 3rd Amtrac Bn. at Camp Del Mar, California..He knew all about the C-3 amtracs from Korea and WW two and also the new ones that replaced those while I served the P-5 and A-5 armor amtracs. Those eventually were put to good use in Veit Nam...
But what an array of armor this man has put together and willing to display...Also some aircraft, jeeps, halftracks, even a swift boat I think from the Korea or Nam era not sure...a few guns, helmets, you name it, you will probably find it there on this farm between Darlington and Crawfordsville Indiana...I had no idea it was there, Mike has been telling me about it for a year now maybe...I hope to generate some lookers for him as he and his employee "skip" are usually on hand to give you the tour or just let you wander around at your pace.....Skip is very knowledgeable about most all the equipment...Fred shared with me that the new "Museum of the Marine Corps", in Quantico Virgina has several pieces of armor and amtracs that he restored for them...I have seen those and they do look great...I shared with him that my wife and I had been on hand for the dedication ceremony of that museum on Nov. 10, 2006.
And that it had been the final trip that we had taken together in the motor home before her death of cancer the following April. Mr. Ropkey shared with me that he also had lost his first wife to cancer....
I do count him in the few Marines I have met in my lifetime as a "Marines Marine".
I do not know him well of course but any Marine that would go to this extent for a hobby is gonna get listed as such in my book....Now you army guys don't shy away from this place...He gives Army equipment equal time there also...some Navy stuff as well and one of the aircraft is the trainer plane that led to the building of the Lunar Landing vehicle for the moon mission....
OK if you don't do anything else after reading this blog do yourself one emmense favor. Go to the right side here and click on my link that says "be sure and watch this"..click on that...then go down to the 3rd video called Across Indiana...sit back and watch it. it is kind of a classic....
Well that's about it for today, check out my pics on the right hand side and do someday visit this nearby one hours drive from Lafayette or Indianapolis maybe...it is well worth your time....
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