The Stuart Tank Memorial Association Museum and our educational programs are the Association’s mission and focus. What had started as a search for a Berwick built Tank to serve as a static memorial has grown substantially.

• With the help of the Marine Corps League, STMA raised $120,000 to purchase a tank in 2016.
• Obtained BATF and State Department permits to purchase and import the tank from England.
• Restored it mechanically to running condition.
• A custom built trailer to haul our 28,000 pound M3A1 Light Tank was built and donated by Cheetah Chassis.
• The STMA Museum building was obtained from Berwick Health & Wellness through a grant process.
• Obtained an earlier Berwick built M3 Light Tank on loan from the National Museum of the Marine Corps, now on static display in the Museum.
• Kawneer Corporation fabricated and donated a 10 ft. x 11 ft. set of glass doors to allow the NMMC tank to be placed in the museum.
• Kocher Construction cut the wall opening
• Reliable Glass installed the doors.
• Bloomsburg Carpet donated new rug for the Main Display Room. Joseph Petty installed the rug.
• Obtained three large glass display cases from Don E. Bower from the demolition of the old Williamsport Airport Terminal.

STMA has conducted educational displays at Eckley Miner's Village, the Bloomsburg Fair, Knoebels Grove, Altoona Curve Stadium, Bedford Springs WWII Weekend, the Philadelphia Veterans Day Parade, Briggs Blues Festival, Bloomsburg Children’s Museum & numerous other venues. Educational presentations were given to all grades at Holy Family School and Briar Creek Borough after school program. STMA has also conducted its own events including the annual Berwick World War II Weekend. Event features include Home Front displays and information in addition to the military displays. Visitors see the sacrifices made by families at home to support the troops overseas.

The Museum provides a fixed indoor location for lectures, presentations, videos, books and displays. The focus is on the contributions and sacrifices local families made in support of the Arsenal of Democracy. In addition to building Community and Family pride, with so much current news reporting of drugs and crime, the Museum and its programs provide a positive history.

In addition to the World War II history, the Museum highlights the importance of what today is titled “STEM” education.

• The wartime production at AC&F Berwick highlights STEM skills:
• Science – Technology – Engineering – Math
• Science – Metallurgy, Chemistry
• In order to produce their own armor plate and develop processes to weld armor plate
  AC&F needed experts in Chemistry and Metallurgy.

TECHNOLOGY

Heat Treatment, Welding, Machining The tanks were originally riveted steel plates. During the production of the 15,224 tanks rivets were replaced by welding. Special processes were developed to enable the welding of armor plate. Due to the size of the tank orders AC&F suppliers could not meet the demand for armor plate. AC&F built their own furnaces and produced their own armor plate.

ENGINEERING

Mechanical Design, Ballistics, Strength of Materials AC&F produced so much armor plate the military allowed them to set up their own on site ballistic testing facility. All other manufacturers had to ship plates to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland while AC&F fired live shells at their plates inside a building in the center of Berwick. Armor plate was installed at an angle to increase the effective ballistic strength without increasing plate thickness.

MATH

Geometry, Weight Distribution -

Armor plate was installed at an angle to deflect small arms fire and increase the effective thickness without increasing weight. The large rear idler wheel increased the length of track bearing on the ground providing better weight distribution resulting in the 29,000 pound tanks only exerting 10.9 pounds per square inch on the ground.

EQUALITY

Knowledge that your accomplishments are not limited by preconceived notions & prejudices. As men rushed to enlist in the military following Pearl Harbor, women joined the workforce performing what had been “A Man’s Job”. Manpower shortages resulted in positions being opened for women which had previous been limited to men only. Such positions included security guards and pilots in addition to factory worker positions – welders, machinists, and assemblers. The same manpower shortages resulted in positions being made available to African Americans in the military where they proved themselves well as demonstrated by the famed Tuskegee Airmen, 761st Tank Battalion, and Red Ball Express. The treatment of Japanese Americans whose parents were placed in Internment Camps yet still volunteered and served as in the highly decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy and France to name another example.