US Army Training Center - Yearbook (Fort Jackson, SC)

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what The a Works, Plays and Lives ,Forti Jackson is one of the United States Army's largest military reservations, and is con- veniently situated just outside the city limits and five miles east of the business district of Columbia, the capital site of South Carolina. Columbia, a busy, progressive city, offers the soldier numerous places of interest, entertainment, education and religious Eworship. This 77,000 acre post, located in the heart of the Palmetto Ca treej State, was named in honor of Andrew Jackson, born in New Lancaster, South Caroli.na,' a major-general of the Army who ,dis- tinguished himself as a hero in 1814 at New Or- leans who later became the Nation's seventh President. This fpost, terrained with tall-pine forests and several picturesque lakes, a sportsman's paradise, was founded and opened as Camp Jackson with formal Congressional approval in June 1917. A year later, 45,000 officers and enlisted men under the banners of the 30th and the 81st Divisions Were trained here as World War I troops to be sent to Europe to bolster General Pershing's American Expeditionary Forces, After the 1918 armistice, the general demobilization of the Army took place, and in 1921 the need for the Camp as a full-time regular army garrison was past. During the period 1925-1940, it Was State-controlled as an encamp- ment area for the State National Guard troops. In 1940, the Camp, primarily designed as an In- fantry training post, reverted to federal control and became Fort Jackson, a permanent-type Army installation. On 1 July that year the Sth Infantry Division was activated here and later in the same

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DWIGHT W. BINGHAM Lieutenant Colonel Public Information Officer GRAY W. TOLAR Major Post Quartermaster ARTHUR M. CHESTER Major Assistant Adjutant General HARVEY G. JOHNSTON Lieutenant Colonel Special Service Officer IVAN C. WHIPPLE Lieutenant Colonel Post and Division Chaplain CLAIRE E. GROVES CAMERON W. SHULTZ, JR. Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Post Engineer Post Signal Officer ' ? MELVIN VUKSICH WALTER B. COCI-IRAN REX S. BAYLISS H. ROSS BRYAN Lieutenant General Major Major Major Adjutant General Assistant G-4 Post Transportation Officer Management Officer RAYMOND V. T. KIMBLE JOHN F. MITCHELL, JR. MAURICE L. SMITH BURNES L. FEASTER Major Major Major ' Captain Information and Education Ordnance Officer Provost Marshal Post G-2 VERDIE B. PRESLEY JOHN B. WINE WILLIAM M. KEAN Captain Captain First Lieutenant Aide-de-camp Aide-de-camp Aide-de-camp

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ir year the 30th Old Hickoryi' Division, also nick- named in honor of Andrew Jackson, moved in. A 52,500,000 program of permanent-type building construction was started. A S500,000 small-arms range with 400 targets was placed into operation. Over one-hundred miles of hard-surfaced roads were constructed and appropriately named for South Carolina Revolutionary and Civil War heroes. Carolina maneuvers in 1941, which saw an additional 200,000 acres of land in sixteen North and South Carolina counties requisitioned for training areas, found divisions molding themselves together as fighting teams. Divisions, some destined to be famous in World War II, trained here for their subsequent roles as combat divisions in Europe and the Paci- fic. It is estimated that over 500,000 American Hghting men received some phases of World War II training at Fort Jackson. The Army Service Forces Personnel Replace- ment Depot Was located here in May, 1945. Fort Jackson became a replacement training center in November, 1946 and in June, 1947 it was design- ated as one of four permanent replacement train- ing centers in the United States. The famous 5th Infantry Division Was subsequently reactivated on the Post as a training organization. ln April, 1950 the 5th Infantry Division, after three years of creditable performance at Fort Jackson as a replacement training organization, Was inactivated and the Post prepared for a standby status. This status never fully material- ized due to a series of world events which influ- enced the continuance of the Post operations on an active status. The immediate reactivation of the 8th Infantry Division as an element of the Third 1. Post chapel No. 1 2. Fire station No. 1 3. Sports arena, 4. Post Officers Cafeteria Mess 5. Post theatre No. 2