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

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After completion of the Command and General Staff College, he was assigned as 8-3. 2d Airborne Battle Group, 503d Infantry. Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He accompanied the Battle Group to Okinawa in 1960. After serving 32 months as Battle Group 8-3, he became Assistant G3. IX Corps. In 1963 he attended the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. He was assigned to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of Personnel, United States Army. in 1963. In 1964 he was assigned as an Assistant Secretary of the General Staff, Office of the Chief of Staff, United States Army. In 1965 he joined the lst Infantry Division at Fort RiIey. Kansas. as Commanding Officer, lst Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment. He ac- companied the Battalion to Vietnam and remained Battalion Com- mander until August 1966 when he returned to the US Army Com- bat Developments Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. In 1967 he attended the National War College in Washington, DC. Upon completion, he rejoined the lst Infantry Division as Comman- der, Division Support Command, then Commanding Officer, 3d Bri- gade. until August 1969. He rejoined the Department of Tactics at West Point, New York, serv- ing as the Commanding Officer, 2d Regiment, United State Corps of Cadets from August 1969 to June 1970. During this period tfrom 9 February to 8 May 19701 he attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. In June 1970 he assumed the duties of Commander of Camp Buckner, West Point, New York. General Haldane became Deputy Commanding General of Fort Dix, New Jersey, in August 1970 and was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in March 1971. In 1972 General Haldane was assigned as the Commanding General, lst Infantry Division tFWDI at Goeppingen, Germany, his fourth as- signment with the Big Red One. General Haldane became Chief of Staff. VII Corps, on 30 March 1974 and was promoted to Major General on 1 September 1974. General Haldane assumed his present position as Commander of the United States Army Training Center, Infantry and Fort Polk, Fort Polk, Louisiana, on 6January 1975.

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ROBERT HALDANE Major General, US Army Commandlng General Robert Haldane was born in Glen Rock, New Jersey, on 30 September 1924. After serving as a Corporal in the United State Army Air Corps from 2 April 1943 to 15 June 1944, he entered the United States Military Academy in July 1944 and graduated as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in 1947. During 1947-1948 he attended the Ground Gen- eral School at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 1948 he was assigned to the 18th Infantry Regiment, First Infantry Division in Germany where he served as Platoon Leader and Company Commander until 1952. In 1952 he joined the 3d Infantry Regiment, Fort Myer, Virginia and served as Company Commander and Battalion 3-3 until 1953. During 1953 and 1954 he attended the Airborne School and the Infantry School tAdvanced Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. After graduating from the Infantry School, he served in Korea as a Project Officer with Headquarters, Armed Forces Far East. In 1955 he returned to West Point, New York, where he served as Company Tacti- cal Officer until 1958. In 1958 and 1959 he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

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HISTORY OF FORT POLK FORT POLK, the largest military installation in Louisiana, is located in the western part of the state. near the bur- geoning communities of DeRidder and Leesville. The training center covers more than 199,000 acres t311 square milest in picturesque Kisatchie National Forest. The Army post. originally called Camp Polk, was establish- ed in 1941 and named in honor of the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk, the first Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana, known as the Fighting Bishop. He was killed while serving as a Confederate lieutenant general in 1864 in Marietta. Georgia. During World War II, former President Dwight D. Eisen- hower. Generals Mark Clark, Omar Bradley, Alfred Gruen- ther. George S. Patton, Jr., and Walter Krueger were among the famous leaders who directed the training of soldiers at Fort Polk. The units receiving training included the 3rd, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th Armored Divisions, the 95th Infantry Division and the 11th Airborne Division. After the war, Camp Polk was deactivated and put on a stand-by basis, but the summers National Guardsmen and Reservists kept it partially open for two-week training periods. The Korean War brought Camp Polk back to life in Sep- tember 1950 when the 45th Infantry Division, Oklahoma National Guard, was activated and trained for duty, leaving for Japan in 1951. The camp has also served as headquarters for the XV Corps and later the 37th Infantry Division from Ohio and the lst Armored Division. The post closed in 1954 and was reopened and designated a Fort in 1955 with headquarters for Operation Sage Brush in which over 85,000 troops took part. Exercise King Cole was subsequently held at Polk before the post was deacti- vated in June 1959. Summer encampments were the only military activity until September 1961, when Polk faciiities were again required to support another national emergency - the Berlin Crisis. POST HEADQUARTERS GUEST HOUSE MAIN GATE AIRPORT