Many items for sale.Military vehicle aficionados won’t forget their visit to the American Military Museum and Restoration Center in South El Monte, California, for a long time. Items on view in collection: Uniforms, weapons, decorations, insignia, posters, firearms, books and other military memorabilia dating from the 18th century to 1945. Wednesday through Sunday summer hours 10 a.m.-7 p.m. La Palma Ave., Buena Park (half a block east of Beach Boulevard).Īdmission: $2 for adults, $1 for children 6-12 during winter children 5 and under free.

He is quick to set its worth at $1.5 million. Today, Lane said he’s looking either for “a benefactor” to help underwrite the cost of the museum’s overhead or for a buyer for the entire collection. Over the years, he amassed the collection mostly by the barter system, “by wheeling and dealing with other collectors.” He dedicated the museum “to all the fallen peoples of the world” who died in time of war.

“By the time I got to high school, I could find no place on the West Coast to go to do research on the subject of world wars, so when I was 15, I made a promise to myself and my parents and teachers to have a place here on the West Coast where kids could come to study.” When I was a kid, other kids wanted toys, but I had the foresight to know that the war souvenirs would one day be worth more than the toys.

“And I was greatly influenced by the war movies in the 1940s. “My uncle, who was a Seabee in World War II, gave me his helmet and his canteen,” Lane said. Lane, a former Air Force pilot, said he began collecting military memorabilia almost from the cradle, beginning in 1944 when he was 6.

Los angeles military tank museum