Indiana and Free Military Photos- "The Camp that Died Twice"

As I post to this site, see how lucky I am to see the photos from the military everyday. I am from Indiana and that is where my heart lays. When I enlisted I was sent to give my oath at Fort Benjamin Harrison, located Lawrence, Indiana only 40 miles to the north of Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh, Indiana. While both posts have a rich history on our American soil, I am covering Camp Atterbury in light of recent photo post.

In 1942 it took only four months to construct the army camp, Camp Atterbury. During WWII there were more than 100 units and 275,000 men who received training here. It housed U.S. 92nd ID in 1942, 30th ID "Old Hickory" in 1943, 83 ID "Thunder Bolt" and the 106th "Golden Lion" in 1944, and 39th Evacuation Hospital. The stories of each division goes on to heroic stories. It was also home to the Wakeman General and Convalescent Hospital. It was a 9,000 bed facility and treated more than 85,00 patients during WWII.

During this time it was also a POW camp. It's more than 1,500 wood frame buildings held both German and Italian soldiers. They left their marks behind. A Roman Cathloic Chapel that the Italian POW's built still stands. There also was three known rocks carved. One has since been lost, one with the markings "Atterbury Internment Camp 1537th SU, 12-15-42, and the most noted, "Camp Atterbury Rock". The Camp Atterbury Rock was carved by Livero Puccin, an Italian POW it says, "Camp Atterbury 19 49", (the space between the 19 and 49 is where a depiction of an Italian dagger is. It is still at the post today.

This era for the post is wrapped up in 1944 when 560,595 soldiers said goodbye to their time in service as they were released back to civilian life from this post.

In 1950's during the Korean War the 5th Army set it back up for the 28th ID "Keystone" (1950) and 31st ID "Dixie"(1954) were stationed there. They then moved on to Camp Carson in Colorado. (My grandfather trained there before he left for the Korean war in 1952). After this departure the post was again kept at a minimum amount of usage. In 1965 the land was passed to the Indiana Army National Guard.

This history leads into to the enlistment of myself in 2002. In 2003 CAJMTC - (Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center) the Camp was activated and thousands of service members have been moved here to prepare for their deployment the middle east. There are only two Guard posts that do such training. Camp Shelby, Mississippi, and here. The post has been downsized over the years from 43,000 to about 30,000 acres, with many different civilian uses. Please check out the photos on this site: http://www.freemilitaryphotos.com/photo/06-22-2010/camp-atterbury-native-remembers-70-years-post-history These are two of the resources I got a few details from: indianamilitary.org wikipedia