Re: Camp Shelby

Date: May 21, 2004

"Camp Shelby too tough to fade away

THE SUN HERALD

CAMP SHELBY - Activated first in 1917 as a training camp for World War I troops, the camp was created after local civic leaders petitioned the U.S. Army to build a training site in the DeSoto National Forest.

More than 4,500 civilian contractors built 1,206 buildings, including a hospital and warehouse. The soldiers lived in tents.

The first troops to arrive at the new camp were 6,000 National Guardsmen from Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia. They named the new camp in honor of Isaac Shelby, an Indian fighter, Revolutionary War hero and first governor of Kentucky.

When World War I ended in 1918, Camp Shelby was deactivated and all but four of the buildings were demolished. One of these remains, an ammunition magazine.

World War II

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 reopening the camp as a federal installation.

World War II saw 17,000 civilians build more than 1,800 new buildings and 250 miles of roads at a cost of $24 million. Soldiers still slept in tents, 14,000 of them, and at one time the population exceeded 100,000, making Camp Shelby the largest training center and tent city in the world.

At its World War II peak, over 1,000 square miles were in use for training. Among renowned units was the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team made up of loyal Japanese-Americans, which became the most highly decorated unit in the Army. Shelby was also host to units of the Women's Army Corps, a large convalescent hospital and a prisoner of war camp, which at first housed some of Rommel's German Afrika Corps.

Post World War II

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.

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 the summer of 1954, non-divisional National Guard units trained at the post and in 1956, the Continental Army Command designed Camp Shelby as a Permanent Training Site, under the direction of the Third Army Headquarters.

Again in the 1950s, troops getting their annual training at Camp Shelby were housed in tents. Then in 1958, Congress allocated money for the first of the permanent-type, cinderblock 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.

By the 1990s more than 120,000 National Guard, Reserve and active duty soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines made use of Camp Shelby. Today it encompasses more than 134,820 acres. Camp Shelby is the largest state-owned and operated field training site in the United States. It can accommodate up to battalion level maneuver training, has excellent firing points and a wide range of support facilities."