Anyone who wants to help bring back the Signal Museum can join a five-kilometer fundraising run on Fort Gordon June 11.
The 5K is being organized by two Signal groups and a class of young Army Signal warrant officers who were disturbed to learn the Signal Corps no longer has a museum.
“I try to create as much buzz as possible,” said the lead student organizer, Warrant Officer Michel ‘Michael’ Varona. “It’s a big deal we don’t have a museum.”
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In October and November of 2021, Army officials emptied out the United States Army Signal Corps Museum as part of the shut down and demolition of the Signal Towers complex to make way for a $930 million modernization project that includes four new buildings that will anchor the new Cyber Center of Excellence campus. When the museum shut down, it was the first time in 105 years the Army Signal Corps did not have a museum. The museum’s collection was distributed to an Army warehouse and several Army units on Fort Gordon.
Two groups – the Fort Gordon Signal Museum Society and the Signal Corps Regimental Association – have teamed up to replace the museum with an empty building just outside Gate 1 that formerly housed the National Science Center on Craig Sims Parkway and Gordon Highway.
To buy the property, they need $3.25 million. The current owner gave the Signal Corps supporters a $750,000 discount, said Amy Tuschen, executive director of the Fort Gordon Signal Museum Society. So far, the group has raised $160,000, she said.
“The word is getting out there,” Tuschen said.
Participants for the 5K can register online or the day of the race, which is a Saturday. Race-day registration starts at 6 a.m. and closes at 7 a.m. The race starts at 7:30 a.m. Families and children are welcome, and participants don’t have to run. They can leisurely walk if they like, Varona said.
“We want families to come out,” Varona said.
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Organizers are asking for a $10 donation, but participants can donate any amount they like and all proceeds go to the fund to buy the museum property, Tuschen said.
To register for the race go to https://signalcorps.org/save-our-history-5k-registration.
The starting line is at the Barton Field Stage, located at the corner of Brainard Avenue and Rice Road on the southeast corner of the field. The race is open to the public, but anyone without a Department of Defense identification card needs to be cleared at the visitors center at Gate 6 and pick up their visitor’s pass the Friday before the race on June 10. The link to request a visitor’s pass is https://home.army.mil/gordon/index.php/about/visitor-information/visitor-preregistration.
Joshua B. Good is a staff reporter covering Columbia County and military/veterans’ issues for The Augusta Press. Reach him at joshua@theaugustapress.com
