US Army Training Center - Yearbook (Fort Polk, LA)

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Main Gate MP Chapel Fort Polk, largest Army installation in Louisiana, is also the youngest, fastest growing training facility in the Army. Located in western Louisiana, near the burgeoning communltles 0f Lees- ville and DeRidder, the installation covers more than 147,000 acres of Kisatchie National Forest. . The Post, originally called Camp Polk, was estabhshed as a result of the famous Louisiana maneuvers of 1941-42. Twenty- two million dollars worth of construction was completed 1n mid-1942. . Fort Polk was named after the Right Reverend Ideomtlas Polk, an Episcopal bishop of Louisiana, known as the Flghtlng Bishop? Reverend Polk was killed in action in 1864 at Marletta, Georgia, while fighting as a Confederate lieutenant general. During World War 11, Camp Polk trained mxlhons of men. Former President Eisenhower, General Mark Clark, General Omar Bradley, the late General George S. Patton, Jr., General Walter Krueger, and General Alfred Gruenther were among the famous personalities who directed the training Of equally famous divisions whose deeds in battle in the European, A51ast1c, 3nd Pacihc Theaters have gone down in history. After the war, Polk was inactivated to a stand-by statusJIi 1948-49, the camp was partially opened to accommodate Vlta National Guard and Reserve summer training. September 1950, saw the Post fully activated to meet the needs of the Korean War. In 1954, the Post closed, only to be opened the next year and designated a fort. In June 1959, Fort Polk again was closed. Wilt. Vegxsw s2. 4 m