News Article
Photo Special to The Sun/The Hattiesburg (Miss) American/George Clark
Capt. Mike McMillan, left, Sgt. 1st Class Jerald
Bushing, center, and Capt. Keith Rautter, all with the
U.S. Army 305th Infantry at Camp Shelby, practice
manuevering around one of the "Iraqi villages" set up on the base. They will be
some of the instructors training the Tennessee National Guard’s 278th
Armored Cavalry Regiment at Camp Shelby before their deployment to Iraq.
By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer Source: The Greeneville Sun 06-26-2004
Members of the Tennessee Army National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, including those in Greeneville-based Troop G, will be training at Camp Shelby, Miss., for the next several months.
The Hattiesburg (Mississippi) American newspaper reported this week that the 278th ACR will be training at a recently finished training facility called "Hurricane Point," where a model of a 'forward operating base' has been built and buildings have been erected to resemble "Iraqi villages."
Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 305th Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 87th Training Support Division built the forward operating base to train Tennessee National Guard troops of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment and, probably, Mississippi’s 155th Separate Armored Brigade, the Hattiesburg American reported on Friday in an article by reporter Janet Braswell.
"We will never be finished," Lt. Col. Mike Sharp, commander of the 2nd Battalion, told the Hattiesburg American. "There will always be something else to do, some improvement to be made."
The division dedicated Hurricane Point Thursday night, June 24, just two days before the first small-scale training for the Tennessee troops was scheduled to start. After a supper of burgers, potato salad and baked beans, the troops who built Hurricane Point gave tours of the five-acre base to family and guests.
"It’s unbelievable,” said Hattiesburg businessman Nick Crutcher. “Not being in the military and seeing something like this, knowing our soldiers will have this training area is fantastic."
Twelve-year-old Ross Hollis of Biloxi checked out the tents — enough space to sleep 680 soldiers at once — and the guard towers.
"All the tents - it’s pretty surprising how big they are,” he said. “The towers look like they’d be pretty easy to climb, but it’s hard coming down."
His dad, Capt. Charles Hollis, is an Army Reservist serving as the brigade’s assistant quartermaster.
He’s been on active duty about 18 months.
"It’s pretty cool," said Akhenaton Aquil Zakariyyaacq, 13, of Oak Grove, Miss. "It should be really helpful in the future."
Materials for the forward operating base have cost $842,000, so far, not including modular buildings used to create Iraqi villages and towns for realistic training. A crew of about 15 contract laborers, most from Mexico, filled more 50,000 sandbags used in building bunkers and firing points.
The 4,000 soldiers of the 278th ACR began arriving at Camp Shelby last week and are undergoing soldier readiness training, processing paperwork, going through medical and dental exams and testing individual skills.
Eventually, the entire regiment will move to the field for training at Hurricane Point and other locations, according to the Hattiesburg American article.
Built for WWI
Originally opened for training of U.S. Army units in World War I, Camp Shelby is located 12 miles south of Hattiesburg, Miss., on U.S. Highway 49 South, in southeastern Mississippi.
Camp Shelby serves as a training site for national guardsmen and Army reservists from throughout the country, hosting as many as 100,000 personnel annually.
The camp population includes 350 active-duty military personnel; 525 family members; 800 national guardsmen; 20 Army reservists; and 300 civilians.
Providing full-time employment to more than 1,000 people, the camp's economic impact is substantial, contributing more than $60 million annually through payroll and in state purchases.
Camp Shelby encompasses more than 134,820 acres, and is the largest state-owned and operated military field training site in the United States.
A check of Internet sites related to that military facility and southern Mississippi provided much other information.
'Scorching Summers'
"South Mississippi's weather scopes a full range from the occasional below freezing temperature in the winter to our famous scorching summers," the Hattiesburg Web site notes.
"What Hattiesburg residents look forward to most is the coming of each fall and spring. These seasons are full of days of short-sleeve temperatures and nights cool enough for a sweater."
The average daily high temperature in June is 94 degrees, according to the Hattiesburg Web site, while the average June low is 66 degrees. The humidity level year-round averages 60 percent.
Camp Shelby is named for Col. Isaac Shelby, a leader of the “Over-Mountain Men” who left Sycamore Shoals (present-day Elizabethton) to fight and defeat British-led forces at the Battle of Kings Mountain during the Revolutionary War.
Shelby went on to become Kentucky’s first governor.
Shelby also returned to military service during the War of 1812, leading a force of 4,000 Kentucky volunteers to victory over a British force during the Battle of the Thames, according to the camp’s Web site.
Congress awarded Shelby a gold medal for his heroic leadership. President James Monroe offered Shelby the position of Secretary of War, but Shelby declined the offer.
Big Artillery/Firearms Area
The artillery and firearms "impact area" at Camp Shelby is used for the firing of small and large caliber weapons and it consists of approximately 17 square kilometers of gently rolling grassland. Used year-around, the camp’s impact area averages in excess of 190 firing days each year.
Weapons fired into the impact area included the “main guns” of M1A1 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, self-propelled and towed artillery guns, mortars, laser-guided weapons, and small arms, according to the Web site.
Camp’s History
Work first started started on Camp Shelby in July 1917. More than 4,500 civilian contractors were hired; and they built 1,206 buildings, including a hospital and warehouse. The soldiers lived in tents.
During World War I, elements of the 37th Division, Ohio National Guard, were stationed at Camp Shelby, as well as the famed "Cyclone Division," the 38th, of Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia.
The 38th Division got its nickname as a result of a tornado that occurred during their World War I training at the camp.
When World War I ended in 1918, Camp Shelby was deactivated. All but four of the 1,200 buildings were demolished. Today, only one of them remains.
In 1934, the State of Mississippi acquired the site for use as a summer camp by the National Guard.
Camp Shelby proved ideal for U.S. Army maneuvers in 1938, and in 1940 the Mississippi congressional delegation was successful in having the facility reopened as a federal installation.
World War II
World War II saw 17,000 civilians build more than 1,800 new buildings and 250 miles of roads at Camp Shelby, according to the Web site.
Soldiers still slept mostly in the 14,000 tents, and at one time the population exceeded 100,000 people. then making it the nation’s training camp. At its World War II peak, more than 1,000 square miles were in use for training.
The 38th Division returned. Also, the 37th Division from Ohio was joined by the 31st (Dixie) Division, the 43rd, 65th, 69th Division and the famed 442 Regimental Combat Team made up of loyal Japanese-Americans who became the most highly decorated unit in the European Theater.
Camp Shelby was also host to units of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), a large convalescent hospital and a prisoner-of-war camp, which initially housed some captured German soldiers of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s Africa Corps. Initially, troops using Camp Shelby were housed in tents, forming the largest tent city in the world.
After World War II, the post was again closed. The War Assets Administration sold the federally owned property. Even the water pipes were dug up and sold, most of them going to Oklahoma City, where some are still in use, according to the Web site. Korean War.
During the Korean War, Camp Shelby was developed as an Emergency Railhead Facility, and $3 million was spent to restore rail, water, and electric services. In 1956, the Continental Army Command designed Camp Shelby as a Permanent Training Site, under the direction of the Third Army Headquarters.
Initially troops performing annual training at Camp Shelby were housed in tents, but in 1958 Congress allocated money for the first of the permanent-type barracks. In 1959, the Department of the Army approved the overall Camp Shelby plan and adopted it as the model for future construction at all field training sites.
In 1965, during the Vietnam War, the 199th Light Infantry Brigade performed combat training at Camp Shelby prior to its deployment to Vietnam.
Story Copyright to Greene County Online