(POW) camp at Fort Meade in 1942 during
World War II 20th century Initially called Camp
Annapolis Junction, the post was opened as "Camp Admiral" in 1917 on acquired for a training camp. The post was called Camp Meade Cantonment by 1918, During the First World War, the garrison included the 154th Depot Brigade, which was commanded for part of the conflict by Brigadier General
Tyree R. Rivers. Camp Franklin Signal Corps school was located there and in 1919, the
Camp Benning tank school—formed from the World War I
Camp Colt and
Tobyhanna schools—was transferred to the fort before the
Tank Corps was disbanded. Renamed to Fort Leonard Wood (February 1928 – March 5, 1929), the fort's
Experimental Motorized Forces in the summer and fall of 1928 tested vehicles and tactics in expedition convoys (Camp Meade observers had joined the in-progress
1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy). In 1929, the fort's
1st Tank Regiment encamped on the Gettysburg Battlefield. During
World War II, Fort Meade was used as a
recruit training post and
prisoner of war camp, in addition to a holding center for approximately 384
Japanese,
German, and
Italian immigrant residents of the U.S. arrested as potential
fifth columnists. The
Second U.S. Army Headquarters transferred to the post on June 15, 1947; the post became headquarters of the
National Security Agency.
Cold War air defense From the 1950s until the 1970s, the
Fort Meade radar station had various
radar equipment and control systems for air defense, such as the 1st
Martin AN/FSG-I Antiaircraft Defense System. Fort Meade also had the first
Nike Ajax surface-to-air missiles in December 1953 (operational May 1954) and an accidental firing occurred
in 1955 with Battery C, 36th AAA Missile Battalion. In 1962, the Army's Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 13th Air Defense Artillery Group, transferred from Meade to
Homestead AFB for initial deployment of
MIM-23 Hawk missiles, and during the
Cuban Missile Crisis, the 6th Battalion (HAWK), 65th Artillery at Fort Meade (a
United States Strike Command unit) was deployed to the Miami/Key West area (the 8th Battalion (Hawk) was at the fort in late 1964). Fort Meade bomb disposal experts were dispatched to secure nuclear bombs in the
1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash. In 1977, a merger organized the fort's U.S. Army Intelligence Agency as part of the
United States Army Intelligence and Security Command. On October 1, 1991, a
wing of the Air Force Intelligence Command transferred to Fort Meade, and the organization was replaced by the
70th Operations Group on May 1, 2005. In the early 1990s, was transferred from the post to the
Patuxent Research Refuge. The
311th Signal Command headquarters was at Fort Meade from 1996 to September 2006.
21st century The
70th Intelligence Wing headquarters was established at Fort Meade on July 17, 2000, and the
Base Realignment and Closure, 2005, designated Fort Meade to gain 5,700 positions. Fort Meade currently has more than 54,000 employees (service members and civilians), and is the largest employer in the state of Maryland and second largest installation by employee population in the Army. After an August 27, 2007,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order to assess the contamination at 14
hazardous waste sites on Fort Meade, such as an ordnance disposal area, 1940s waste dump, closed sanitary landfill, a September 2007 environmental impact report identified adding two golf courses would be a "significant threat to the biological and territorial integrity of the Patuxent Research Refuge". The US Army responded that it is "taking steps to limit the environmental damage."
Defense Information Systems Agency After
United States Cyber Command was established at the post in 2009; on April 15, 2011, the
Defense Information Systems Agency ribbon-cutting for the move from
Arlington County, Virginia, was at the agency's Fort Meade complex of .
Defense Information School The consolidation of the
Defense Information School and the Defense Visual Information School in fiscal 1996 and further consolidation with the Defense Photography School in fiscal 1998 created a single focal point in the
Department of Defense for these specialties fields. Advancements in information technology and recent base realignment and closure initiatives have contributed to the evolution of the school. The result is a single school proud of its historical roots and dedicated to serving the diverse requirements for public affairs, broadcasting and visual information. On March 30, 2015, National Security Agency police officers shot and killed a person who attempted to drive an SUV through a restricted entrance to the NSA campus in Fort Meade, Maryland. A passenger in the SUV was injured, as was an officer, and both were treated at a hospital. President Obama was briefed but the FBI determined "we do not believe it is related to terrorism." On February 14, 2018, National Security Agency police officers shot and wounded an individual who rammed an SUV into a barricade near an entry gate outside of the facility. In the immediate aftermath of the event, the NSA announced that there was "no ongoing security or safety threat." ==Geography==