Camp Pendleton Mechanized Museum’s vehicles are always a crowd pleaser The museum is housed in a large building opened in 1946 as a depot for troops coming to the Marine Corps base by train. They were issued their equipment there. At one time, from the late 1800s, the tracks were the main line north from San Diego, through Fallbrook. They were flooded many times and moved many times, King said, until they finally were abandoned in 1993. But some tracks remain by the side of the building – with two vintage military rail cars attached. At one time, the building also served as a morgue, King said. “There are a couple of refrigerated areas,” he said. It became the Mechanized Museum in 2002, and King’s been the curator both before and after his 2009 retirement from the service. “We use donations,” to run the museum, King said. “We don’t have a budget.” Master Gunnery Sgt. James King , USMCRet, has no trouble getting volunteers to drive vintage vehicles from the Mechanized Museum aboard Camp Pendleton in Oceanside’s annual Independence Day parade, scheduled for June 29 this year. He said he’ll probably put 14-17 vehicles in the parade. “We have the biggest group,” he said. On a regular basis, he may have fewer docents at the museum, where he’s the curator, but the volunteers are many for the parade because “they love to drive our stuff,” King said. Some of the vehicles weigh as much as 197,000 pounds and need a Class A license to drive because they are not “tactical” vehicles any more, he said. The vehicles may be seen at the museum as well. A part of it is open to the public five days a week. The other part, where the mostexpensive vehicles reside, is open only by pre-arranged tour. But there’s plenty to see in the public portion.
For instance, there is an all-terrain prototype vehicle that looks a bit like a many-footed (or in this case wheeled) monster of some sort. It was great, King said, for plowing through rice paddies in Vietnam. “Only seven were made,” he said. “and this is the only one left.” In the area exclusive to tours are a World War I ambulance, built in 1913, and a Model T Ford, refitted to perfection, even to the canvas top. A lineup of motorcycles sits next to a “duck,” a vehicle which drives on dry land and then plunges right into the water carrying troops or cargo. Veterans from the famous Chosin Reservoir battle in Korea will ride in the duck during the parade. And there’s a fire engine once belonging to the Camp Pendleton Fire Department. Besides what’s in the museum building, there’s a back lot full of tanks and other vehicles awaiting King’s personal mechanical touch, although he has assistants who work on the vehicles as well. “I have every type of mechanical background,” he said. Some vehicles provide parts for others.
The museum is undergoing about a month of renovation, but then is expected, King said, to reopen to its regular hours of 8am to 4pm Monday through Thursday and 8 am to 1 pm on Fridays. It can be reached by traveling through the main gate – after checking in with the guards, of course – and driving about 12 miles straight ahead. The building is on the left past the airfield. Story and photos by Lola Sherman.