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Battle of the Bulge reenactment at FIG?


Chindit
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Hello,

Not sure this is the right place for this question, but I may be missing something, but I can't find anything on the above reenactment at Fort Indiantown Gap PA for 2020.

 

Does anyone know whether this is still going on? Or has it been cancelled due to some type of bureaucratic nonsense?

 

Thanks.

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I heard it was cancelled. The military came up with a bunch of unachievable prerequisites, mainly due to the usual idiots acting in their usual manner.

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Its long dead and its unfortunate that someone hasn’t created another large scale winter event to take its place..

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post-6975-0-08416900-1579612656_thumb.jpeg

 

From Chicken Licken, went for years. Great flea market and event. Heard somebody blew thumb off with mortar and F.I.G. said no more. Anyone know really what happened?

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attachicon.gif71287B41-5638-4B5B-9DAD-B37CC2ADBE47.jpeg

 

From Chicken Licken, went for years. Great flea market and event. Heard somebody blew thumb off with mortar and F.I.G. said no more. Anyone know really what happened?

I think between the mortar incident as well as finding replica ordinance in the field which requires them to call EOD the command had enough of hosting the event which is a shame as the flea market alone was worth the trip..

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Lets not forget the organizer(will remain unnamed) was a greedy miserable pr$#k. Did not care about the event just the money he made

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Nothing changed with the un named group, same as it was 30 years ? ago. Remember the 2 girls that did “ The Andrews Sisters” show? Found them for our events in Va. Beach at Ft. Story.

Flea market was real reason to go when going to the field got old, or got to old to go to the field. How many went to Ft Dix Battle of the Bulge events?

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I think between the mortar incident as well as finding replica ordinance in the field which requires them to call EOD the command had enough of hosting the event which is a shame as the flea market alone was worth the trip..

Cannot confirm or deny, BUT—

 

I have heard that the Army Reserve is now off the post and the PA NG has total command of FIG.

 

I have also heard this may be a positive direction for chances that the re-enactment may return to the Gap one day.

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Cannot confirm or deny, BUT—

 

I have heard that the Army Reserve is now off the post and the PA NG has total command of FIG.

 

I have also heard this may be a positive direction for chances that the re-enactment may return to the Gap one day.

From what I understood it was the guard who had the issue with the event not the reserves..

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Here is the letter from the WWIIHA Board of Trustees

 

:

 

The following is the statement about the cancellation by Association Chairman Larry Mihlon:

“As Chairman of the WWIIHA Board of Trustees, it is my unfortunate duty to make the following announcement.

Members of the reenacting and living history community:

It is with deep regret that we announce that the annual Battle of the Bulge event at Fort Indiantown Gap has been cancelled indefinitely. Members of the Board of Trustees of the World War II Historical Association have put countless hours into addressing the situations that have ultimately made this decision necessary. Here are the facts.

FIG-day-2-123-199x300.jpg

WWII-era rifles rest in a barrack gun rack at Ft. Indiantown Gap. (Anthony C. Hayes)

1. The Garrison will now require any and all reenactors who might wish to deploy to the “ranges” (the areas where the battle reenactments usually take place) to adhere to regular Army standards with regard to using any weapon whatsoever. This would include any and all hand and shoulder fired weapons such as handguns, rifles, etc. Individual reenactors would therefore be required to be certified with these weapons to US Army standards. Since we are using historic weapons, the Army has no way to confirm our level of training as none of their personnel are trained on any of the historic US weapons or allied/axis weapons of WWII. This is virtually impossible to comply with under just about any circumstances.

2. The Garrison will now also require that reenactors in leadership capacities adhere to Army standards of certification for non-commissioned officers and officers. This would require extensive education and training to achieve that is well beyond the ability of most reenactors. Compliance with this is also virtually impossible.

3. Social Media and other internet traffic relating to the event, which was seen by the Garrison, led to significant concerns. Social media has wide visibility and what was seen by Garrison personnel was cited as potentially creating a negative public perception of Fort Indiantown Gap.

4. Continued appearance of reenactor hand grenades and land mines in the field after our events has greatly disrupted military training because that normally generates an EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) call which closes down military training until the area is clear. This is unacceptable to the garrison. They cannot allow this to continue, disrupting military training on an ongoing basis.

We would like to thank everyone who has participated in the event over the many years, and to those of you who took on key volunteer and leadership roles to make the event happen.

The WWIIHA Board of Trustees”

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Shame to see it gone - I attended The Gap from 1982-2002ish. Incredibly good times reenacting, living in original WWII barracks, veteran experiences, and of course the vendor area!

 

Our group also attended the Ft. Dix events for several years as well.

 

Very best,

 

Bill K.

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