Real Men's Military Museum
  History and highlights.
630 East Cork St Kalamazoo, Mi.
The origin of Real Men's Military Museum 1999

The museum's first home was in the back room of T.W. Lane Enterprises an automobile dealer specializing in Antique , Special Interest and Antique autos.
The location was quite sufficiant however it was difficult to negotiate the hill to make the turn in, so the decission was made to relocate to a venue closer to the Air Zoo and Aviation Museum in Portage.
The two pictures below will give you an idea of the Cork St Location.
  

The Portage location
5350 Ivanhoe Court
Portage Mi.

This location proved to be a great visibility location with large windows and a good amount of room for displays, However, the location was hard to find even though it was only 1 mile from the Air Zoo

     

In May of 2007 it was decided to close the static physical location and expand on the mobile aspect of the museum. The age old saying if your customers don't come to you you go to them. The Military Road Show & Traveling Museum has long been a part of the entire program. So now we are entirely mobile and with one name Military Road Show & Traveling Museum. This summer we have covered most towns in south western Michigan. doing car shown Festivals, Parades and Fairs. We are working with the VA Hospital to get the word out to vets about their bennifits

     
For more information please call 269 344 5555

                    German Souvenirs                The main Museum              Japanese bring backs
                       click on pic.                            click on pic.                        click on pic.
                                                                                                                                                            How does a hobby become a passion? That's an excellent question and perhaps the answer to that question is easier than you might think. When I was a wee lad of seven years old and like most boys growing up after WWII, we all had dreams of growing up and becoming war heros like Seargent York    or Audie Murphy, Heaven only knows maybe the great one General Douglas MacArthur. We built bunkers, dug trenches, dressed up in real uniforms that we had aquired from our dads, uncles and neighbors. What fun- playing army all day and being home by 6:00 pm for supper. I believe that was the stimulous to this hobby/passion, or maybe it was the smell of canvas, or cosmoline or olive drab green
   Whatever it was, we could not wait to get to the local Army-Navy surplus store to purchase the newly arriving merchandise and then trade with our buddies.

   Well kids grow up and some things change. Rick joined the Army, went to Vietnam as an advisor to a PRU unit, did his time and came home.  Scott moved to California and we lost contact for 40 years. Craig was fortunate - he stayed home. I joined the Navy, was attached to an aviation squadron VS-38, traveled all over the world and got combat pay to boot. You know it is funny - Rick, Scott and myself are still as goofy about Militaria as we were 50 years ago. Rick is heavy into Civil War memorabilia. Scott was and still is an avid German relics collector. And you willsee where my interests have taken me (man overboard ).