Renault FT-17, M1917 six ton tank

[Gunner]

Hi John:

The Col that ran the museum likely survived the coup last year as he would have been seen as not in the direct chain of command and wasn't really one of the President's inner circle.

Because they have two (the one I saw being reportedly the worst of them) he might be open to selling one to raise money for the museum. I can certainly ask through good friends over there if he is still around. Better yet would be to offer to restore one to working order for him in exchange for what's left afterwards.

I seriously considered shipping two BTR 152 home from Mali. There is a train that runs to Dakar Senegal twice a week so you can rail it to Dakar and ship from there. Container it and paint it bright blue so its ag machinery. Bribes would be needed to cross the border between Mali and Senegal and the train frequently "breaksdown" requiring more bribes by all aboard to get it running again. The rail company (Canadian) is getting a grip of those problems and they are less frequent than when I was there.

The other option is truck to the Cote d'Ivoire and ship from there. You can imagine after all my rambles in th3e third world nothing surprises or scares me much but trucks over there scare the hell out of me due to unreliability and unqualified drivers. There would be bigger bribes to cross that border but it is an option.

All up I was looking at $40K to ship two vehicles in container plus the cost of the vehicles which was very low as one was to be a gift to the CWM if we could have done the deal.

Good luck! Mike