Oshawa Military and Industrial Museum
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The Oshawa Military Museum grew out of an organization known as The Ferret Club, a group of military vehicle enthusiasts who needed a home for their vehicles. As a result, this museum is somewhat different from most others. Almost all of the vehicles in the collection are either running, or vehicles that will be restored to running condition, and these vehicles are actually driven quite frequently. Since these vehicles do run, the owners are less reluctant to let people climb onto and into them than most museum curators are, or even take patrons out for a ride.
The Ontario Regiment Ferret Club, a part of the Oshawa Military and Industrial Museum, has come a long way it's conception in 1980. Starting out with a troop of nine Ferrets, there are now over 55 vehicles in their collection.
The club started out in a two bay garage in Oshawa in 1980. Before long it became necessary to find a permanent home for the rapidly growing collection. It was felt there was no more appropriate location than the Oshawa Airport which was one of the many British Commonwealth Air Training Plan sites for allied pilots (including Americans) during the Second World War.
As well as the vehicle collection, the museum maintains a large collection of uniforms, weapons, medals and artifacts used by the Canadian Army dating from the 1850s to the present.
These artifacts are displayed in diorama settings depicting their era of use. Many medals are displayed; these include those of past members of the Ontario Regiment, such as Honourary Colonel R.S. McLaughlin's Order of Canada.
The club and museum is almost entirely volunteer supported and employed with many people coming out to lend a hand with the strenuous task of restoring antique military vehicle. Most of the museums collection of unrestored vehicles is also visible from the outside through a chain-link fence.
The Museum has a large number of tanks and armoured vehicles in its collection. Aside from an M24 Chaffee, a pair of M4A2(76)W HVSS, and three Centurions, there are a number of foreign-operated vehicles. Several Ferrets populate the place, along with an Abbott self-propelled gun from the BATUS detachment at Suffield, Alberta. Two M60A3s dwarf almost everything else, although the two M551A1 Sheridans are deceptively large. A number of ex-US Army M113A2s are driven regularly, as are the M113C&R Lynx. For softskins, there are a number of examples of different CMP vehicles, as well as many jeeps and a couple of nice examples of the M37. M62 wreckers get used frequently to move the vehicles and components around as necessary, and many other postwar trucks can also be seen up close.
