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

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Post Headquarters who have matched, topped and gone on to set new standards in physical training, rifle and other weapons qualification scores. Included among the Post,s training accomplishments is the Army-wide record of 459.5 for the physical combat proficiency test. It was established by Company Q, Third Training Brigade, in April 1964. In four years of operation, more than 350,000 Polk graduates have been added to the Army ranks. Fort Polk,s climate, location and terrain make it an out- standing training area the year round. The climate is mild, with Gulf breezes modifying the summer season and tempering the ,winter chill. Freezing temperatures seldom occur although per- iodic northwesterly winds occasion sudden drops in temperature, frequently accompanied by drizzling rains. From their vantage point at Fort Polk, servicemen soon learn that Louisiana has much to offer the weekend Sightseer and out- doorsman. Southern towns of great charm welcome visitors looking for a touch of the true aura of Louisiana,s history as well as a taste of its excellent French and Latin cuisine. Choice fishing spots on and near the Post are numerous, and hunters find small game in abundance. Cities in the surrounding area offer a wide range of business, educational, recreational, cultural and religious facilities. Within three hundred miles of the Fort are such cities and recreational areas as New Orleans, Houston, Galveston, Dallas, Biloxi, Lit- tle Rock and Hot Springs. Professional services available include a bank, a credit union, post oHice, hospital. and Red Cross Office. Chapels and com- munity churches invite Polk personnel to worship in the religion of their choice. Thus, Fort Polk provides a balanced program for its men. The recreational and cultural activities are some of the best the Army has to offer; at the same time, using the latest Army techniques, the Post performs the vital mission of turning civil- ians into the finest soldiers to be found anywhere in the Army.

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The 49th Armored Division of Texas; the 4009th US Army Garrison of Baton Rouge, and other Reserve and National Guard support units arrived for a year of active duty. With the growing need for an even stronger Army, in July 1962 the Post was designated an Infantry Training Center. Regular Army personnel began converging on Polk in the spring of 1962 and within a few months the first trainees arrived. By early fall units providing basic combat, advanced infantry, and common specialist training were fully operational. Rehabilitation of Post facilities from their condition in early 1962 was a gigantic task. Polk personnel had to develop train- ing and recreational resources to accommodate the new situa- tion. A dynamic program of beautification was begun and resulted in acres of verdant grass and foliage in every brigade area. The Post-wide planting of magnolia and cypress trees, and other projects, are transforming Fort Polk into a garden spot of Louisiana. Today Fort Polk is a bustling, vigorous training center. Its recreational facilities include lighted baseball fields, softball dia- monds, tennis courts, swimming pools and golf driving range. Other activities include a riding academy, brigade and Post heldhouses, air conditioned bowling alley, service clubs, li- braries, movie theaters, and an 18-hole golf course, one of the finest in the Armed Forces. Fort Polk was selected in December 1965 to conduct Viet- namese oriented training for Advanced Individual trainees selected as replacements for US Army infantry forces in South- east Asia. - . ' - Fort Polk required a host of ranges and training areas in order to produce top-notch soldiers to assume roles on the Army team. These were constructed or rebuilt to embody the latest advances in training techniques and methods. In addition to material facilities, a trainng philosophy had to be developed. The crux of this philosophy has been the evolution w of an incentive program designed to provide motivation for superior performance. Its worth has been proven by the trainees, i Chapel ' Entrance Road History of Fort Pol a 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 communi- ties of Leesville and DeRidder, the installation covers more than 147,000 acres of Kisatchie National Forest. The Post, originally called Camp Polk, was established as a ' result of the famous Louisiana maneuvers of 1941-42. Twenty- two million dollars worth of construction was completed in mid-1942. Fort Polk was named after the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk, an Episcopal bishop of Louisiana, known as the 9Fighting , BlShOp.,, Reverend Polk was killed in action in 1864 at Mari- t etta, Georgia, while fighting as a Confederate lieutenant general. L Durlng World War II, Camp Polk trained millions of men. 1. 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, Asiatic and Pacific Theaters have gone down in history. .. After the war, Polk was inactivated to a stand-by status. In v 1948-49, the camp was partially opened to accommodate vital . Natlonal Guard and Reserve summer training. . September, 1950, saw the Post fully activated to meet the '3 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. . Operations continued on a limited basis for National Guard i. and Reserve two-Iweek encampments. In September 1961, how- , , 65; ., ever, Polk facilitles were again called upon to answer another natlonal emergency-the Berlin Crisis.

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m .; n-u ,. mmm mm W Major General Ellis W. Williamson was born in Raeford, North Carolina, 2 June 1918. Through high school and college he was a member of the 120th Infantry Regiment, North Carolina . National Guard. Upon graduation from Atlantic Christian College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1940, he entered the Federal Service with his unit. General Williamson remained with the 120th Infantry Regiment throughout World War 11 serving in rank from private to colonel. Fol- lowing commissioning as a second lieutenant of infantry in March 1941, he served as a commander at platoon, company, battalion and regi- mental level and as a battalion and regimental staff officer. He was regimental commander at the time of the unitis return to state control in January 1946. The same year he was integrated into the Regular Army. For three years he was an instructor of tactics at the Infantry School. He gradu- ated from the Command and General Staff College in 1950 and was assigned to Headquarters X Corps in Korea. He participated in the amphibious landing at Inchon as Assistant Operations thcer, X Corps, later becoming Operations Officer. General Williamson was assigned in 1952 to the Office of the Army Chief of Staff, next attended the Armed Forces Staif College, and then returned to Washington for duty in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He assumed command of the 13th Infantry Regiment at Fort Carson, Colorado in 1956 and took this unit to Germany on Operation Gyro- scope. After 27 months as regimental commander, he became Chief of the Training Division, Headquarters Seventh U. S. Army. He returned home to qualify as a parachutist and attend the National War College. Following three years in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for -335? I ELLIS W. WILLIAMSON Major General, U. S. Army Commanding General Personnel at Department of the Army, General Williamson assumed command of the 173d Airborne Brigade tSeparatei upon its activation in Okinawa in July 1963. He organized and trained this unit for its mission as Pacific Theater Reserve Force during the next two years. General Williamsonis brigade, in May 1965, became the first U. S. Army ground combat unit to enter the coniiict in Vietnam. Under his command, it participated in actions designed to protect friendly in- stallations and to destroy enemy forces in the Bien Hoa-Vung Tau-Ben Cat areas and the mountain plateau areas of Pleiku and Kontom. General Williamsonis command in Vietnam included All Australian and New Zealand combat elements, plus some Vietnamese units. General Williamson's U. S. and foreign decorations include the Dis- tinguished Service Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star with five Oak Leaf Clusters, the Legion of Merit with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Air Medal with nine Oak Leaf Clusters, the British Distinguished Service Order, the French Croix de Guerre with Silver Star, the Vietnamese CrOss of Gallantry with Palm, Vietnamese Army Disctlinguished Service Medal, and the First Class Vietnamese Service Me al. A 1962 graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Busi- ness, he earned his Master of Science degree in International Affairs at George Washington University in 1963. General Williamson is married to the former Margaret McNeill of Charlotte, North Carolina, and has two children, Dan and Nan. He assumed command of the U. S. Army Training Center, Fort Pork. Louisiana, 1 November 1966.