The past several months have been dominated by the sale of the HQ and mini-museum building on Post Road in North Kingstown, RI – our home for the last 20 years. Our volunteer manpower has been depleted by the delays on our new facility at Quonset, and it was a herculean task to vacate the building and the storage yard by a September 15 deadline.
Longtime volunteer and former employee Bob Albee returned from his travels just in time to play a key role in the move, and as usual, David Gamache was there through it all as an essential everyday worker. But among a group of heroes, the one guiding this move was our Maintenance Director, John Gibbons. At the age of 85 he ramrodded our motley crew, solved seemingly insurmountable problems, and used his wealth of friendships and contacts to help get the job done.
As it turned out, we had collected and stored an amazing amount of artifacts, memorabilia and equipment over the years, intended for display/use aboard an aircraft carrier. Steve King of the Quonset Development Corporation (QDC), has made about 5000 square feet of indoor storage space available to us while we await the transfer of land for our permanent facility. QDC also provided us with about half an acre of raw land for our two CONEX boxes and the dozen or so box trailers in which we have stored many artifacts and tools.
A highlight of the move (and perhaps its biggest challenge) was the relocation of our 39-foot long model of the battleship Nevada, built (and battle damaged) by Paramount Pictures for its famed 1983 mini-series Winds of War.
Check out some of the pictures below, which show what a feat our team truly accomplished – thank you to everyone that helped!
We will keep you updated on our next home! Please consider a tax-deductible donation to that end.
First task was to acquire two Conex boxes, and move them to the front of Post Road where our volunteers could load them. 
Using industrial shelving, we built racks to maximize the use of the interior storage space, as well as simplify access. 
We borrowed cranes to load and transport our five aircraft fuselages. 
Enroute to storage at Quonset. 
John Gibbons uses an aircraft carrier hangar deck crane to move one of our machine tools. 
John Gibbons and David Gamache prepare a wing section and aircraft rudder for the move. 
Battleship Nevada model barely makes it out of our workshop and onto a flatbed.
