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

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Fort jackson, one of the United States Armys larger military reservations, is conven- iently 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, of 110,000 population, offers the soldier numerous places of interest, entertainment, education and religious worship. This 56,000-acre Post, located in the heart of the Palmetto', State, was named in honor of Andrew jackson, born in New Lancaster, South Carolina, a Major General of the Army who distinguished himself as a hero in 1814 at New Orleans and who later became the Nation's seventh President. Originally, this lost, terrained with tall-pine forests and several picturesque lakes, a s p o r t s m a n ' s paradise, was founded and opened as Camp jackson with formal Congressional approval in june, 1917. A year later, 45,000 oiiieers and enlisted men under the banners of the 30th and 81st Divi- sions were trained here as XVorld War I troops to he sent to Europe to holster General Pershings American Expeditionary Forces. 'After the 1918 armistice. the general demohili- zation of the Army took place and in 1921 the need for the Camp a full-time Regular Army garrison was ended. However, during the period 1925-1940 it was State-controlled as an encampment area for the State National Guard Troops. D

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Fort Jackson, South Carolina TRAINING CENTER , INFANTRY UNITED STATES ARMY

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In 1940, the Camp, primarily designated as an Infantry training post. reverted to federal control and became Fort jackson, a permanent-type Army installation. On july 1 of that year, the Sth Infantry Division was acti- vated here and later in the same year the 30th Old Hick- ory Division, also named in honor of Andrew Jackson, moved in. A 32,500,000 program of permanent-type building construction was started. A S500,000 small- arms range with 400 targets was placed into operation. More than 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 16 North and South Carolina counties requisitioned for training areas, found divisions including the Ist and 2nd Armored Division, 9th, 29th, 31st, 32nd, 43rd, 44th Infantry Divisions being moulded as fighting teams. In March, 1941, the late President Franklin D. Roose- velt was an honored guest here and in june, 1942, Win- ston Churchill, then Prime Minister of Great Britain, attended an impressive demonstration at the fort. Several divisions, some destined to be famous in World War II, trained here for their subsequent roles as combat divisions in Europe and the Pacific. Included in this saga of jackson fostered, divisions were the 4th, 6th, 8th, 26th, 30th, 77th, 87th, 100th, and the 106th. Also, troops of the I and XII Corps trained here. It is estimated that more than 500,000 American fighting men received some phase of XVorld VVar II training at Fort jackson. The Army Service Forces Personnel Replacement Depot was located here in May, 1945. Fort Iackson became a Replacement Training Center November, 1946, and in june, 1947, it was designated as one of the four perma- nent replacement training centers in the United States. The famous 5th Infantry Division was subsequently re- activated on the Post as a training organization. In April, 1950, the 5th Infantry Division, after three years of creditable performance at Fort Iackson as a replacement training organization, was moved to Indian- town Gap Military Reservation, and Fort Jackson was prepared for a ustandbyv status. This status never fully materialized due to a series of world events which in- fluenced the continuance of the Post operations on an active status, and the immediate reactivation of the 8th Infantry Division as an element of the Third Army was Post Chapel Red Cross Building Post Headquarters sr' W.-imap r. P 'f 'P .ar . 1 P ,aaa f A--