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    Fort Dix
    Fort Dix
    Fort Dix
    Ebook153 pages23 minutes

    Fort Dix

    By Daniel W. Zimmerman

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    About this ebook

    Chronicling the history of life central New Jersey's Fort Dix army camp from 1917 to the present day.


    Located in central New Jersey, Fort Dix has been training soldiers since its founding in 1917. More than three million men and women have passed through its gates since it was built as one of the original 16 army camps to train and mobilize soldiers for World War I. The fort, once known as Camp Dix, has experienced many changes over the years.

    This unprecedented photographic history traces the evolution from a wooden cantonment to the installation of brick and fiber optics, from a horse-dominated transportation system to a motor vehicle system, and from training recruits to serving Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers. Along the way, Fort Dix depicts the influence of the 78th Division, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Women's Army Corps, Desert Storm, and the humanitarian work of resettling the Kosovo refugees.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2001
    ISBN9781439611265
    Fort Dix
    Author

    Daniel W. Zimmerman

    Daniel W. Zimmerman, curator of the Fort Dix Museum, has been researching and writing the history of Fort Dix for more than fifteen years. In Fort Dix, he has selected images, many rare and unpublished, from the archives of the Fort Dix Museum and private collections to tell the story of this historical site. Those living, working, and visiting Fort Dix will experience a visual tribute to the community and the men and women who served there.

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    • 5/5
      A wonderful book for those with connections to this once very active army installation. Personally, I remember visiting Ft. Dix in the late Sixties and into the early Seventies. It was fun watching the soldiers train and drill. The PX and commissary were located in post WWII warehouse type buildings, and many structures still existed from that era. This book brought back many fond memories of growing up around this, as well as many other military installations in my youth.

    Book preview

    Fort Dix - Daniel W. Zimmerman

    months.

    INTRODUCTION

    Fort Dix is named for Maj. Gen. John Adams Dix, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Civil War. During his distinguished public career, Dix served as a U.S. senator, secretary of the Treasury, minister to France, governor of New York, and was a railroad pioneer.

    On April 6, 1917, the United States entered World War I with an army of 200,000 men. Realizing that a much larger army was needed, Congress approved a national draft and the construction of 16 new army camps (named for Civil War leaders) to house and train the draft army. Burlington County, New Jersey, was one of the sites chosen for a new army camp. In June 1917, the firm of Irwin & Leighton of Philadelphia received the contract to convert areas of southern New Jersey cornfields into an army mobilization and training camp. Three months later, the first 17,000 draftees arrived, but as the number of draftees increased to 35,000, tents dotted the landscape to house the overflow. By the end of the war, Camp Dix was a thriving city with its own sewage, water, and electrical systems, medical facilities, paved roads, and 1,655 buildings. The construction cost totaled $13 million.

    The 78th Infantry Division was organized at Camp Dix, and its soldiers were Camp Dix draftees. That division trained at Camp Dix until May 1918, when it sailed for duty in World War I. Some of the other units that trained at or were deployed from Camp Dix included the 87th and 34th Infantry Divisions, the 349th and 350th Field Artillery Battalions of the 92nd Division, and the 15th Infantry from New York, which was federalized as the 369th Infantry. There was also a cook and baker’s school, a remount depot, an officer’s training school, a truck driver’s school, a hospital, a blacksmith school, and a saddler’s school. When the war ended on November 11, 1918, Camp Dix became a demobilization center, returning more than 300,000 soldiers to their former status as civilians.

    During the 1920s and 1930s, a quieter Camp Dix was used as a training area for the Army Reserve, the National Guard, and the Citizens Military Training Camp. For 13 months in 1930 and 1931, the Federal Bureau of Prisons established and operated a prison at the site. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) operated a reception, training, and discharge center from 1933 to 1942. For the CCC, two forestry companies, a physical conditioning company, and a cook and baker’s school were assigned to the camp. The CCC constructed roads, dams, bridges, and fire towers. It also planted trees, controlled soil erosion, and was responsible for building the first runway at the Fort Dix Army Air Base. With war approaching, on March 8, 1939, Camp Dix became a permanent installation and its name changed to Fort Dix. In 1940, while World War II raged in Europe, the federal government purchased an additional 17,000 acres of adjacent land for the construction of new runways and the expansion of others.

    A reception, training, and deployment center was operated at Fort Dix for men inducted under the peacetime draft of September 16, 1940. At

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