Site selection and construction In January 1941 the
U.S. War Department issued orders to consider potential sites for a new
U.S. Army training center in
Indiana. After the Hurd Engineering Company surveyed an estimated , an area was selected for the camp in south-central
Indiana, approximately south of
Indianapolis, north of
Columbus, and west of
Edinburgh. The site, which includes portions of
Johnson,
Bartholomew, and
Brown counties, was selected because of its terrain (some of it is level; other parts are hilly), its location near larger urban areas (such as
Indianapolis, the state capital, and
Columbus, the Bartholomew County seat of government), and its proximity to transportation (adjacent to a
Pennsylvania Railroad line and
U.S. Highway 31). On 28 April 1941, the U.S. War Department announced its intention to establish a military training camp that would be capable of housing 30,000 soldiers. On 6 January 1942, one month after the
attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entry into
World War II, the U.S. War Department announced its decision to proceed with its plan to build Camp Atterbury. Initial land acquisition for the camp encompassed in 643 tracts. The land acquisition cost an estimated $3.8 million ($ in 2022
chained dollars). In addition to the land, the site encompassed numerous farmsteads, the towns of Pisgah and
Kansas, fifteen cemeteries, and five schools. Four of the area's fifteen cemeteries remained intact; the grave sites in the other cemeteries were exhumed and relocated. Initial work at the site began in February 1942. The U.S. Army contracted John Richard Walsh as a real estate project manager to oversee the initial development at the camp that would accommodate and train a full-sized,
triangular division of 40,000 soldiers. Various civilian contractors built the camp over a period of six months from February to August 1942. At the peak of construction in June 1942, there were 14,491 workers on the payroll. An estimated 700 vehicles and daily bus service provided transportation from nearby towns and an on-site concession tent served meals to 600 workers at a time. On 6 February 1942, the War Department announced that the camp would be named in honor of Brigadier General
William Wallace Atterbury, a
New Albany, Indiana, native who received a
Distinguished Service Medal for his contributions during
World War I. In addition, Camp Atterbury was nicknamed Mudbury during its construction because of its muddy grounds, the result of heavy spring rains during 1942.
Official anniversary Unlike most military installations, Camp Atterbury did not have an official dedication. Six months after construction started, Soldiers began to be unceremoniously transported to the camp to begin training. Instead, Camp Atterbury's anniversary falls on 15 August 1942, when the
83rd Infantry Division was activated. The camp was opened to visitors, and nearly 25,000 Hoosiers watched the opening ceremonies. Camp Atterbury's second anniversary falls two months earlier, on 2 June 1942. Traditionally, Soldiers mark the activation of a post with the day that the first numbered Order is written. Camp Atterbury's first order rolled off a mimeograph machine on this day in the Camp's first headquarters building, a red brick house on hospital road and the former house of Dale Parmalee, a local farmer.
World War II-era facilities Costs for initial construction were approximately $35 million ($ in 2021
chained dollars). Buildings included soldiers' barracks, officers' quarters, mess halls, warehouses, post exchanges (PXs), chapels, theaters, and indoor and outdoor recreational facilities, as well as administrative and other support buildings, such as a library and post office. Facilities to provide water, sewer, and electricity were also installed in addition to construction of a spur of the Pennsylvania Railroad adjacent to the camp. The camp's training facilities also included twenty-one firing ranges and about thirty buildings arranged as a small town, nicknamed Tojoburg, to provide soldiers with field practice in a village setting. At its largest, Camp Atterbury had 1,780 buildings and provided housing to 44,159 Officers and Soldiers, including: 499 Enlisted men barracks, 40 Bachelor Officer Quarters (BOQs), 23
Women's Army Corps (WAC) barracks, 61
Prisoners-of-War (POW) barracks, 193 Mess halls, 12 Chapels, 5 Service clubs, 3 Officer clubs, 6 Theatres, 4 Gymnasiums, 4 Swimming pools, 1 Hospital and convalescent center (68 building-campus occupying 80 acres).
Hospital and Convalescent Center Camp Atterbury was the site of a state-of-the-art 1,700-bed hospital on approximately of land. Initial construction included forty-three, two-story buildings for patient wards, treatment facilities, mess halls, a post exchange, an auditorium, and a recreation center, as well as housing for medical officers, enlisted men, and nursing staff. Thirty-one of these concrete-block buildings had interconnecting corridors. With later expansion and remodeling, the facility evolved into a 6,000-bed hospital and convalescent center. In July 1942 a medical training school was established at Camp Atterbury and as demand for its services increased, the hospital was further expanded and remodeled. In August 1942 additional buildings were erected to provide space to train field hospital units. In April 1944, when the post hospital was designated as a specialized general hospital for treatment of soldiers wounded in combat, it was under the command of Colonel Haskett L. Conner. The facility included 2,000 beds for hospital patients and a separate rehabilitation center for 3,000 convalescing soldiers. On 8 May 1944, the hospital was renamed Wakeman General Hospital, in honor of Colonel Frank B. Wakeman, a
New York native. Colonel Wakeman attended
Valparaiso University as an undergraduate student prior to his service in the
Medical Corps during World War I, and received a medical degree from
Indiana University in 1926 before returning to active duty in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Colonel Wakeman served as Chief of the Training Division, Office of the
Surgeon General of the U.S. Army, prior to his death in March 1944. In July 1944 the
Women's Army Corps Medical Department Enlisted Technicians' School was relocated to Camp Atterbury from
Hot Springs, Arkansas. In a little more than a year, an estimated 3,800 WACs received their medical technology training at Wakeman Hospital. Some of them remained at Camp Atterbury after their training, while others continued their service at other U.S. Army hospitals. In late 1944 and early 1945, the hospital and convalescent center's facilities were further expanded and remodeled in anticipation of an increase in demand for its services. Effective 5 April 1944, the 3547th Service Unit replaced the WAC and medical section of the 1560th Service Unit, and on 18 August, the hospital received its first casualties from
England and
France. The wounded arrived by airplane from Atterbury Army Air Field (modern-day
Columbus Municipal Airport), about twelve miles away, and by train on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Wakeman General, the largest hospital in the Fifth Service Command, was "one of the best equipped among the forty-three specialized general hospitals in the United States" in the 1940s. It specialized in plastic, neuro-, and orthopedic surgery and reconstructive treatment, and was especially known for its plastic eye replacements. By January 1945 Wakeman had a medical detachment of 1,600 personnel and about 700 civilians serving 6,000 patients. In addition to its staff, the hospital had the
American Red Cross and a group of local women, known as the
Gray Ladies, as volunteers to assist its patients. The Red Cross and
United Service Organizations also provided entertainment in the form of recreational activities, shows, and special events. On 20 April 1945, the Wakeman General and Convalescent Hospital, whose total capacity eventually reached 10,000 patients, was designated as the Wakeman Hospital Center. Soldiers who remained at Camp Atterbury for an extended period of recovery were housed in barracks within the camp about two miles from the hospital. Wakeman Hospital remained under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Ray M. Conner, followed by Colonel Frank L. Cole in May 1945 and Colonel Paul W. Crawford in January 1946. The convalescent center was under the command of Colonel Harry F. Becker. Wakemen treated an estimated 85,000 patients during the war. It closed at the end of 1946 after its remaining patients were transferred to other hospitals. The WAC Medical Department Enlisted Technicians' School was relocated to
San Antonio,
Texas.
Commanders During World War II, Camp Atterbury was under the command of a succession of military officers from its establishment in 1942 to its closure in 1946. Colonel Welton M. Modisett, who served as its first post commander, arrived in May 1942. He continued to serve in that capacity during the camp's use as a military training center and prisoner internment camp. Brigadier General Ernest A. Bixby succeeded Colonel Modisett as post commander in June 1945, when the camp was active as reception and separation center. Colonel Herbert H. Glidden succeeded General Bixby in June 1946, followed in August by Colonel John L. Gammett, who had been the commander in charge of the internment camp, and Colonel Carter A. McLennon, who arrived in September. Colonel McLennon was Camp Atterbury's commander when it closed in December 1946.
Units trained during World War II During its use as a military training facility between 1942 and 1944, four U.S. Army infantry divisions trained at the camp before they were deployed overseas: the
30th,
83rd,
92nd, and
106th infantry divisions. Camp Atterbury also trained numerous service support units. In 1942 the U.S. Army's 83rd Division, under the command of Major General John C. Milliken, was the first infantry division to arrive for training at Camp Atterbury. Reactivated on 15 August 1942, the division and its auxiliary units later grew to include about 25,000 service personnel. In March 1943 the 83rd established a
U.S. Army Ranger training school at the camp. The division left Camp Atterbury in June 1943 for further training in
Tennessee and
Kentucky before shipping out to England and the
European Theater of Operations in April 1944. The 365th Infantry Regiment and the 597th Field Artillery Battery, two units of the 92nd Division, under the command of Colonel Walter A. Elliott, were reactivated at Camp Atterbury on 15 October 1942. Composed of African American servicemen, the two units remained at the camp until 26 April 1943, when they joined the remaining 92nd Division forces at
Fort Huachuca,
Arizona. The 92nd sailed for
North Africa in June 1944, and served in the
Mediterranean Theater of Operations. The 30th "Old Hickory" Division, under the command of Major General Leland S. Hobbs, arrived on 13 November 1943, for a ten-week stay at the camp. The division left on 30 January 1944, for
Massachusetts, and sailed to England in February 1944. The 106th "Golden Lion" Division, under the command of Major General
Alan W. Jones, arrived at Camp Atterbury in March 1944 and left on 9 October 1944. The 106th Division, the largest to train at Camp Atterbury, was sent to the
Ardennes, where it was forced to surrender in the
Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. Numerous auxiliary and service units also trained at Camp Atterbury, including some of the units from the Eighth Detachment, Special Troops,
Second Army, which was under the command of Colonel Richard C. Stickney. Medical units also trained at Wakeman Hospital and practiced in the field. Another unit, the
U.S. 39th Evacuation Hospital, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Allen N. Bracher, was activated on 30 August 1942, and departed from Camp Atterbury on 7 June 1943, for Tennessee. It was sent overseas in March 1944. The
101st Infantry Battalion (Separate) under the command of Colonel Vincent Conrad, arrived at the camp in December 1942. It was given the nickname of the Austrian battalion because some of its members were political refugees from
Austria, including three archdukes (
Felix,
Carl Ludwig, and
Rudolf), who were the sons of
Charles I of Austria and the brothers of
Otto von Habsburg. A few months later, when the battalion was disbanded in 1943, its members were reassigned. The 1584th Special Training Unit (renamed the 1560th SCU Special Training Unit in February 1944) provided academic training for military personnel at the camp beginning in November 1943. The 1562nd operated a school to train bakers and cooks for military service. In 1942 Indiana officials reported that the camp would receive
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps personnel to serve in various capacities at the camp. (The WAACs became known as the Women's Army Corps, or WACs, on 15 May 1942.) Facilities were erected for their use in a separate block of buildings, away from the other service personnel. Similar in construction to others at the camp, the women's buildings included barracks, mess halls, an administrative building, and recreational facilities. The first contingent of 130 women arrived at Camp Atterbury on 6 March 1943, from a training center at
Daytona Beach, Florida. This all-white group served as the 44th Headquarters Company, under the command of Second Officer Helen C. Grote, who had trained at
Fort Des Moines Provisional Army Officer Training School in
Des Moines, Iowa. (The 44th Post Headquarters Company was renamed the Headquarters Section of the 3561st Service Unit on 21 June 1943.) Another contingent of 141 women arrived at the camp on 22 May 1943, under the command of Second Officer Sarah E. Murphy. This all-black group of WACs performed duties at Wakeman Hospital as part of the 3561st Service Unit and cared for wounded soldiers returning from combat.
Camp newspapers and radio stations Camp Atterbury established its own newspaper during the war. The first issue of
The Atterbury Crier was published on 25 September 1942. The name of the free publication was subsequently changed to
The Camp Crier, with its first issue published on 5 March 1943. Wakeman General's publication,
The Probe, was combined with the camp's general newspaper in January 1946. The last issue of
The Camp Crier was published on 14 June 1946. In addition to the camp newspaper, some of the individual units published their own
mimeographed newsletters under names such as
The Jerk,
The Buzz Saw,
The Fighter,
The Wardier, and a Wakeman Hospital newsletter called
The Splint and Litter, among others. Wakeman Hospital also had its own radio station, WAKE. Camp Atterbury's first wartime, all-soldiers radio show, called "It's Time For Taps," aired from
Indianapolis on Thursday, 8 October 1942, at 1310 AM kHz.
Internment camp From 30 April 1943, to 26 June 1946, a portion of Camp Atterbury was enclosed with a double barbed-wire fence and surrounded by guard towers for use as a
prisoner-of-war camp. Administered under the terms of the
Geneva Convention of 1929, the internment camp was one of 700 established in the United States. Over the three years and two months of its operation, the internment camp received an estimated 15,000 soldiers, most of them
Italian and
German. During its operation there were seventeen prisoner deaths, but no escapes. The internment camp was closed in June 1946 and dismantled. In 1970 the remains of the prisoners who died at Camp Atterbury were exhumed from the POW cemetery at the camp and moved to
Camp Butler National Cemetery, near
Springfield, Illinois. Located on on the extreme western edge of Camp Atterbury, about from the camp's regular troops, the internment camp included separate compounds for the prisoners within a stockade. Its facilities were intended to house and feed up to 3,000 the prisoners at a time. Seriously injured prisoners were treated at Wakeman Hospital. On 15 December 1942, the U.S. Army activated the 1537th Service Unit to perform duty at the prison camp. After receiving specialized training, the service unit arrived in February 1943 to prepare for the arrival of the prisoners of war. For the duration of its use, the internment camp was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John L. Gammell. Father Maurice F. Imhoff, a
Roman Catholic priest, was assigned as the camp's
chaplain. They worked as general camp laborers and at offsite locations, usually as agricultural laborers in groups of ten or more, accompanied by a military guard. Prisoners were paid eighty cents per day for their labor, in addition to a ten-cent per diem from the U.S. government. They were also allowed leisure time at the camp. The first group of 767 prisoners, most of them
Italians, arrived on 30 April 1943, and another group of 400 arrived the following day. By September there were nearly 3,000 prisoners at the camp. In 1943 Lieutenant Colonel John Gammel gave the Italian prisoners permission to erect a small
chapel about from the internment compound. Dedicated to the Blessed Mother, it was named "The Chapel in the Meadow." The three-sided structure, which measured by , was built of brick and
stucco from scrap materials found at the camp. The exterior had bright blue stucco walls and plain white columns. A cross surmounted the south end of its
gable roof. The east and west sidewalls each had an opening in the shape of a
cross. Its interior was decorated with a
faux-painted marble altar installed at the back. Another altar was built for outdoor use. Religious paintings decorated the interior walls and ceiling. The "Chapel in the Meadow" was not demolished when the internment was dismantled, but it fell into disrepair and was vandalized after the war. The chapel was restored and dedicated in 1989. It is the only extant structure from the prisoner-of-war compound. Camp Atterbury's former prisoners and their descendants have returned to the site for annual reunions. In 2017 the
Indiana Historical Society re-created a replica of the chapel for its exhibit, "You Are There 1943: Italian POWs at Atterbury," which runs from 4 April 2017, through 11 August 2018, at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in downtown Indianapolis. The Italians also carved a commemorative stone with the inscription: "Atterbury Internment Camp, 1537th S. U., 12-15-42," in reference to the U.S. unit in charge of the prison compound. This stone lies within the perimeter of the former internment camp. After the departure of the last Italian prisoners on 4 May, another group of prisoners of war, most of them German, began arriving on 8 May 1944. About 5,700 were housed at the camp by September. When the internment camp exceeded its capacity, some of the German prisoners were relocated. By October the number of German prisoners had reached 8,898. An estimated 3,700 of them were housed in satellite camps in other areas of Indiana, where they were closer to the communities who needed them for labor. German prisoners primarily worked as agricultural laborers, as the Italian prisoners had done, but they were especially needed for work at area canning factories. The last German prisoners of war to leave Wakeman Hospital departed on 28 June 1946, for
New Jersey.
Reception and separation centers In August 1944 the reception (induction) center at
Fort Benjamin Harrison, northeast of Indianapolis, was moved to Camp Atterbury, where it was organized as a separate unit in October 1944. U.S. Army inductees stayed in camp about a week before their transfer to a training center. About 9,000 inductees per month passed through Camp Atterbury's reception center before its operations were moved to
Fort Knox at the end of 1946. In addition to the inductees, about 3,000 military personnel who were awaiting reassignment passed through Camp Atterbury's reception station, organized as a separate unit in November 1944. Military personnel arriving at the reception station usually stayed twelve to twenty-four hours before they were sent home or reassigned to other duties after a brief furlough. By September 1945 the reception station was processing about 60,000 returning soldiers per month. It closed on 31 July 1946. Camp Atterbury's separation center, organized as a separate unit at the camp in October 1944, was one of eighteen facilities in the United States that was responsible for handling U.S. Army discharges. Shortly after
Victory over Japan Day in August 1945, Brigadier General Ernest Aaron Bixby, the camp's commanding officer, announced that its huge receiving and separation centers (the U.S. Army's second-largest separation center during World War II) were discharging a daily average of 1,000 U.S. Army troops with sufficient points (85 points or more) or qualifying dependency. On 12 December 1945, Camp Atterbury discharged 2,971 soldiers, its highest number on a single day up to that date. On 2 August 1946, the last U.S. Army soldier to be processed and discharged at Camp Atterbury was Technical Sergeant Joseph J. "Joe" Stuphar of
Poland, Ohio. The induction and separation center officially closed on 2 August 1946; however, about 10,000 military and civilian personnel remained at Camp Atterbury to keep the reception center, military police activities, and Wakeman General Hospital in operation. The first public announcement that the induction and separation center at the camp would close was made on 10 May 1946. On 18 September 1946, after the U.S. War Department announced that Wakeman Hospital would be declared surplus by 31 December,
Indiana governor Ralph F. Gates reported from his office in Indianapolis that the hospital might be used after the first of the year as a temporary state mental hospital until the construction of the new northern Indiana mental hospital was completed. However, after Camp Atterbury and Wakeman Hospital were deactivated in December 1946, the
Indiana National Guard established its headquarters at the site. Camp Atterbury remained on stand-by status until 1950, when it was reactivated as a military training center.
Korean War: The Camp That Died Twice At the onset of the Korean War, Camp Atterbury was reactivated with the arrival of the
28th Infantry Division on 14 September 1950, in a 450-vehicle convoy. The 28th Division left the camp in November 1951. The
31st Infantry Division also trained at Camp Atterbury. When it departed for
Camp Carson, Colorado, in 1954, operations were suspended at Camp Atterbury and it was once again deactivated.
Indiana National Guard Installation: Modern Camp Atterbury Camp Atterbury remained dormant until the 1960s. On 31 December 1968, the U.S. Army discontinued its use as a federal military installation. The
Indiana National Guard assumed oversight of the camp in January 1969. From the 1970s through the 1990s, the camp supported the Indiana National Guard and its missions during the
Vietnam War,
Operation Desert Shield, and the
Gulf War's Operation Desert Storm. the military training site has been reduced to approximately . During the 1960s the
Indiana Department of Natural Resources leased more than of land within Camp Atterbury to establish the Atterbury State Fish and Wildlife Area. Other acreage has been leased to the Atterbury
Job Corps, the
U.S. Department of Labor, the Johnson County, Indiana, Parks Department, and
Hoosier Park. The installation also gained importance following the
September 11, 2001 attacks, when it served as a National Guard training facility. The Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center (CAJMTC) was activated in February 2003. Since 2003 thousands of regular and reserve forces have trained at the camp prior to their deployment to
Afghanistan,
Iraq,
Kosovo and other locations around the world. Camp Atterbury is one of two National Guard bases with this mission;
Camp Shelby in
Mississippi is the other. Since 2009 Camp Atterbury has also trained thousands of civilians from the Inter-Agency and
U.S. Department of Defense in the "DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce" program as they prepare to mobilize in support of stability operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Kuwait.
Naval Air Systems Command sent Dr. Stephen Berrey, its first Acquisition Program Manager-Logistics (APML) civilian employee, to attend the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce training program at Camp Atterbury. Dr. Berrey (Class of 10-08) graduated from the program on 26 August 2010, and immediately deployed to Iraq during
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Acquisition of Muscatatuck In July 2005, Camp Atterbury's size was increased an estimated after it obtained the Muscatatuck State Development Center, a former state mental facility founded in the 1920s. The site included sixty-eight buildings, an reservoir, a submerged neighborhood, an extensive tunnel system, and many other features. Renamed
Muscatatuck Urban Training Center (MUTC), it was acquired with the intention of converting it into the Department of Defense's premier urban training center.
2008 tornado On 3 June 2008, a tornado hit Camp Atterbury, damaging an estimated forty buildings. Two injuries were reported. Despite the estimated multimillion-dollar damage to the camp, training continued for more than 2,000 troops, including a
U.S. Marine unit that was at the site during the tornado outbreak. Four days later, the National Guard and U.S. Marines at Camp Atterbury were utilized in response to the
June 2008 Midwest floods.
Expansion In April 2010 plans were announced to reclaim an estimated of land for construction of Indiana National Guard offices, barracks, and other facilities. Since then, Camp Atterbury has reclaimed a portion of its old borders north of Hospital Road. The North
Cantonment Area includes state-of-the art barracks, dining facilities, a fire station, and training areas. While the old grounds of Wakeman Hospital and several other northern training areas are still owned by Johnson County or the Atterbury Fish and Wildlife Area, Camp Atterbury hopes to return to its original 1942 borders.
2021 Afghan evacuees Upon the ending of the
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), Camp Atterbury was home to around 7,500 Afghan refugees in Operation Allies Welcome (OAW). The first 1,000 refugees arrived on September 1, 2021. The refugees included American citizens, Afghan allies who helped in the American military effort, and those deemed vulnerable Afghans by the U.S. Government. The last Afghan refugees would leave the camp by mid-2022. According to officials, "the refugees include American citizens, Afghan allies who helped in the military effort, and those deemed vulnerable Afghans by the U.S. government."
Support of Ukraine Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, by April, Camp Atterbury prepared
M113 armored vehicles and other equipment for shipment to Ukraine. ==Modern operations==