February 26, 2008

Arnold gets his tank back

In case you didn't know that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger owned a tank, well, it turns out he does.

And the Austrian M47 tank is on its way to California, after an eight-year detour at an Ohio museum, courtesy of Schwarzenegger, who once served in the Austrian army.

From the Associated Press:

Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger's press secretary, said the governor plans to store the tank at a private location.

"He's going to have it closer to home, in California, so he can enjoy it," McLear said.

Schwarzenegger entered the army in 1965, at a time when one year of military service was compulsory in Austria.

In his autobiography, "Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder," Schwarzenegger tells about going AWOL in the middle of basic training so he could compete in a European bodybuilding competition in Germany, which he won. He was caught when he returned to his base and spent seven days in jail before going to tank-driving school.

Driving a tank, he wrote, "appealed to the part of me that has always been moved by any show of strength and force."
...
"A piece of me is with that tank now," he said.

No word yet if Schwarzenegger procured the tank to backfill the state's National Guard equipment shortage.

Photo Credit: AP Photo from August 2000, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lent his Austrian M47 tank to a museum in Columbus, Ohio.

Posted by Shane Goldmacher on February 26, 2008 5:42 PM