Every year, going back to the 1990’s, there has been a tank show in Nokesville Virginia. The show is held at a private restoration facility. The show has evolved over the years, getting bigger each year. As a lover of tanks, I always look forward to the event. The date has switched over the years, sometimes causing me to miss the events (do to other conflicts). The date this year was moved back into the mid summer, so I marked my calendar.
The date finally came on the 26th of August, so I was set. I took the long drive, enjoying rural Virginia scenery and arrived around 11:00. For the first time, there was actually a line of people registering to get it. I had never seen this before, so was a bit surprised. I was regretting not pre-registering! This is rather ironic, as I advised my friends to register online and did not follow my own advice! It took about twenty minutes waiting in line and I was in.
I met up with one of my buddies, who was at the 9/11 section and we started our roaming. The tanks were laid out all over the open area, with some living experience sections sprinkled in between. The normal array of reenactors were in attendance. I even saw a guy dressed as a WWII Swiss infantryman (along with bicycle).
Most of the equipment has been there for a number of years, so it was nice to see them again. There were a few new pieces that I had not seen before. A German Ford truck, Daimler armored car and a Chinook helicopter. The Churchill was parked in the restoration barn and the M-36 was taken apart for full restoration. Everything else was out.
They had the normal side shows, with some tanks driving around, APC rides and flamethrower demos. I was not particularly interested in the vehicles being driven, so I skipped that part. The had their barn with vendors selling things. You could find military lego vehicles, equipment, models and books. They also have been upping their food, by having four different food trucks. Considering the crowd size, they can probably add more of these!
We enjoyed checking everything out and running Into other friends. It was a hot day and we had our fill, so we headed out an and met up at a nice air-conditioned pizza shop for a bite to close out the day. I always enjoy the trip and plan to keep going. If you like tanks and are in the Virginia area, it is a must see event
– Manteuffel