Re: FDR's Secret POW Camp Visit

Date: February 19, 2004

"FDR's secret 10-minute visit to Nashville

President Franklin D. Roosevelt is greeted with a handshake by Tennessee Gov. Hill McAlister as the chief executive arrives at Union Station for his first visit here on Nov. 17, 1934. It was the most public of his three Nashville trips. The last one, during wartime in 1943, was so secretive he made no public appearance in the city.

Ever-alert readers have been helping out recently with ''Learn Nashville'' additions, all welcomed. So no question this week, just more information.

Bill Traughber of Brentwood unearthed President Franklin D. Roosevelt's little-known and less-reported third trip through Nashville during his four terms in office, 1933-45.

It was a brief and clandestine one. His time in Nashville: about 10 minutes.

All of it was aboard his eight-car train, guarded by about 20 soldiers while it paused here.

News reports at the time said the trip had come under ''extreme secrecy'' made necessary by World War II ''conditions.'' One Midstate newspaper was quoted as telling its readers: ''We can't tell you who it was, but an important visitor was in town today.''

The president's short stay here was documented a few days later in two articles on the front page of The Tennessean's editions of April 21, 1943.

FDR had arrived by train on April 17, a Saturday, and ''moved quietly across the entire breadth of the state.''

''The identity of the high-ranking officials aboard the special (train) was a mystery even to those guarding the stations and the railroad bridges and tracks over which he traveled,'' one report said.

His visit that time was part of a tour of military installations, including a stop at the Army's Camp Forrest training center east of Tullahoma, Tenn., in Coffee County.

The year before, in May 1942, Forrest also had become a prisoner of war camp. It eventually processed or housed more than 22,000 POWs, including Germans, Italians and Japanese.

There was no public word at the time about whether Roosevelt toured any of what were ultimately 12 POW encampments at Forrest or any of its 19 kitchens.

''Except for the governor's official welcome to the President at Camp Forrest, the President's entire trip to the state this time was a completely closed book except for the military,'' said one article under the headline ''Roosevelt's Third Visit Here Far Different From Other Two.'' Those were very public ones in 1934 and 1936. (''Learn Nashville,'' Feb. 11)

The other report was headed: ''Rumor Verified: Roosevelt Was in Nashville Saturday; Passed Here After Camp Forrest Inspection.''

He came through Nashville at about 5:30 p.m. on his way to his next stop at Camp Robinson, Ark., the article said.

© Copyright 2003 The Tennessean
A Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper"