Camp Atterbury.....is a training base for the Indiana National Guard. It was planned just months before the entry into WWII. The present site was recommended to Congress in 1941, and construction commenced shortly after the attack of Pearl Harbor in February 1942, and ended about 9 months later with 1,780 buildings erected at a cost of $38 million dollars. During the 1942 Spring construction, it did nothing but rain, and the civilians building the camp, nicknamed it as Mud-Berry An estimates 500 to 600 farm families were displaced, as the Army took over the 43,000 acres. Two communities, Kansas and Mt. Pisgah, disappeared forever. The camp was named for Hoosier Brigadier General, William Wallace Atterbury (1866-1935), an executor of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who ultimately became the Railroads president. During WWII, Camp Atterbury was also used as a prison of war (POW) camp, housing German and Italian soldiers. The camp is now reduced to approximately 30,000 acres, with the remaining being leased to the Atterbury Job Corps, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Hoosier Horse Park and the Johnson County Parks Dept. The camp had several buildings located on the grounds....movie theaters, restaurants, churches, gymnasiums, service clubs, barber shops, hospital, libraries, laundries, bakeries, a dial telephone system, and inter camp bus lines. The hospital was named Wakeman General Hospital, in honor of Col. Frank Wakeman, a Hoosier educated Army Doctor. The 9,000 bed hospital, one of the largest of its kind in the nation, treated more than 85,000 patients during WWII and was one of the Armys plastic surgery centers. In 2003, the U.S. Government planned a budget cut called sequester and the cut included Camp Atterbury. The shut down started in February, laying off over 750 civilian workers, and all soldiers stationed at Camp Atterbury, were moved out to other bases. Mayor Mike Pence planned to keep the base for the National Guard, but came in office too late to save the base. In 2008, a tornado hit Camp Atterbury, damaging 50 buildings, power lines and vehicles, no injuries were reported. Now is Muscatatuck Training Center.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 06:13:16 +0000
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