Tank museum displaying 110 battle-worn tanks opens in Jordan

A museum displaying 110 battle-worn tanks from a century of wars in the Middle East and from more distant conflicts has opened in Jordan.

Curators at the Royal Tank Museum collected armored vehicles over the past decade, including some that served in both sides of the Iran-Iraq war and in the conflicts between Israel and its Arab neighbors in the Golan Heights, Jordan and Jerusalem.

In this Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018 photo, visitors walk past a tank at the Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jordan. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

Lights shine on a tank at the Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018.  (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

Other contributions came from faraway places, such as Azerbaijan, Morocco, Taiwan and Brunei. Most of the museum's tanks were made in America, reflecting Jordan's long-running alliance with the United States.

Some pieces reached Jordan in a particularly roundabout way, including a World War II-era German tank used by the Nazis in North Africa. A swastika-in-palm-tree stencil marks it as one of the German Africa Corps' fleet of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. The Syrians had bought the tank in the 1950s from Czechoslovakia and deployed it against Israel, then gave it to Jordan in 2009.

"The museum is telling the story of the world through the history of tanks," said the museum's general manager, Maher Tarawneh.

The museum, the second in the region after Israel's Yad La-Shiryon, opened last week.

On a recent morning, hundreds of Jordanians lined up outside to be led through the museum by guides, many of them army veterans.

The 20,000-square-meter (2,392-square yard) space also includes exhibits of historic battles in Syria, Jerusalem and Jordan, with loudspeakers blaring gunfire, roars of diesel engines, and fiery patriotic speeches. Life-size replicas of soldiers staff turrets as tank treads menace intricately crafted shrubs.

Dangling from a massive sky-light is a Cobra attack helicopter, of the type flown by Jordan's King Abdullah II.

In this Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018 photo, a family walks past a display of Soviet tanks at the Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jorda.(AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

In this Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018 photo, a family walk past a tank at the Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jordan.  (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

The king decreed the creation of the museum in 2007, launching the acquisition process led by chief curator Hamdan Smairan. The retired major general who commanded the Jordan military's armored corps began by reaching out to his contacts.

The world's tank museums supported the venture. The Tank Museum in Dorset, England and the Imperial War Museum in London provided curatorial counsel. Museums in the Czech Republic and France exchanged tanks for Jordanian tanks.

An old friend of Smairan's lobbied South Africa successfully for the museum's World War II-era British Crusader tank.

Russia and Kazakhstan gave tanks to Jordan's king who then added them to the collection, the curator said.

Most of the museum's tanks were made in America, reflecting Jordan's long-running alliance with the United States. Along with World War II-era Sherman and Tiger tanks, there are also Soviet and Chinese models.

The museum also illustrates Jordan's history.

In this Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018 photo, a family looks at a display of tanks at the Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jordan.  (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

In this Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018 photo, people walk past a display of Cold War-era tanks at the Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jordan.  (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

During World War I, as newly invented tanks battled across Europe, Britain-backed Arab irregulars waged a guerrilla campaign against the German-allied Ottoman Empire. The insurrection, which became known as the Great Arab Revolt of 1917, was led by Abdullah I, the great-grandfather of the current monarch and eventual founder of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

An armored vehicle used in the revolt rotates on a dais in the museum. It is followed by tank exhibits telling the story of Jordan in subsequent battles, including the Mideast wars of 1967 and 1973.

In this Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018 photo, a mannequin in Arab garb holds a gun while riding a horse at the Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

In this Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018 photo, people walk past a tank and a mural depicting a battle scene at the Royal Tank Museum in Amman, Jordan.  (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)

The museum will eventually open an exhibition field and offer rides on tanks outside on site.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis isn't on the ballot Tuesday — but his education agenda is.

DeSantis is once again throwing his weight behind county school board candidates across the state. Though the seats are officially nonpartisan, the Republican governor has endorsed 23 school board candidates on the ballot Tuesday in 14 Florida counties — and he's targeted 14 incumbent board members he wants to see voted out.

One board that conservatives are hoping to win a majority on is in Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Historically known as one of the state’s largest swing counties, Pinellas has been moving to the right in recent years. In a pattern playing out across the state, conservative activists there have equated certain teaching materials with pornography and labeled educators as “groomers.”

Much of the political debate in the races has focused on “parental rights” at a time when both parties are fighting to win over the contested voting bloc of suburban women. The modern parental rights movement grew out of opposition to pandemic precautions in schools and is now animated by complaints about classroom instruction on gender identity and systemic racism.

Florida's new school board members will take office as traditional public schools are facing dramatic declines in student enrollment, with districts large and small wrestling with whether to close schools and what to do with their real estate holdings once the campuses are shuttered. School districts are often among the largest employers and landowners in their communities.

Three challengers in Pinellas have won the endorsement of DeSantis and the local chapter of the conservative group Moms for Liberty.

If elected, candidates Stacy Geier, Danielle Marolf and Erika Picard would join two current members who are endorsed by Moms for Liberty, constituting a majority on the nine-seat board.

“He knows who the true conservative is in my race,” Marolf said after winning DeSantis' endorsement. “My values are actually to protect children.”

But some in Pinellas say parents' rights activists have gone too far, like school board candidate Katie Blaxberg, a registered Republican who's found herself on the opposing side of Moms for Liberty. Blaxberg is running against Geier for an open seat on the board.

Activists aligned with Moms for Liberty have disparaged Blaxberg online and posted information about her children and her home. The chapter president did not respond to phone and email messages from The Associated Press.

“The misinformation that has been spread by this group of people and the intent to ... place mistrust in our teachers,” Blaxberg said, “people are tired of it.”

Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the Parental Rights in Education bill at Classical Preparatory school on March 28, 2022, in Shady Hills, Fla. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP, File)

DeSantis-backed school board candidates face off in Florida

DeSantis-backed school board candidates face off in Florida