Fort McCoy, Wisconsin

Fort McCoy is a United States Army installation on  between Sparta and Tomah, Wisconsin, in Monroe County. In 1909 there were two separate camps named Camp Emory Upton and Camp Robinson, in 1926 these camps were joined together to form Camp McCoy.Since its creation in 1909, the post has been used primarily as a military training center. A part of Fort McCoy is also used by the Wisconsin State Patrol as a training facility.

History
The post has been in virtually constant use since it was first formed as the "Sparta Maneuver Tract" on 14,000 acres (57 km2) in 1909. At first, the tract was made up of two camps, Camp Emory Upton and Camp Robinson. These were separated by a line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad that ran across the land from east to west. In 1910, the army renamed the entire tract "Camp Bruce E. McCoy" for Robert Bruce McCoy, a retired major general who first proposed the area as a training ground and bought part of the property on which the fort stands. In 1926, the name of the post was shortened to "Camp McCoy". It has gone by many different names such as Sparta Maneuver Tract; Sparta Military Reservation; Camp McCoy and now the present, Fort McCoy.The name McCoy comes from Robert B. McCoy who was a military man, farmer and served as county judge who initially set up the land as a military camp.

In 1938, the United States began a major expansion of the camp. This included the addition of over 45,000 acres (180 km2) to the post, as well as the construction of several new structures including living quarters for the troops. This increased the camp's capacity to 35,000 soldiers. In all, the project was estimated to have cost about $30 million. The expansion was officially concluded with a new inauguration on August 30, 1942.

During World War II, Fort McCoy was used as a concentration camp for approximately 170 Japanese and 120 German and Italian American civilians arrested as potentially dangerous "enemy aliens" in 1942. After the internees were transferred to other camps, McCoy was used as a training facility for units from across the country preparing to enter combat, including the segregated all-Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion. The post was also used as a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the conflict, holding 4,000 Japanese and German POWs. Fort McCoy's POWs were featured in the 2011 film Fort McCoy.

The camp was briefly deactivated following World War II, but with the advent of the Korean War in 1950, it was once again used for training. This continued until 1953, when the camp was again deactivated. It was then used to house various small national, state and civilian projects, and served as a training center for the Army Reserves, the National Guard, and the Job Corps.

In the 1970s, a variety of ideas were offered to make use of the camp's land, including a facetious suggestion by researchers to balance Wisconsin's population distribution by creating a major city on the 60,000 acre (240 km2) post that would rival Milwaukee. In response, a Milwaukee official proposed (tongue in cheek) that the camp be used as a landfill for Milwaukee garbage. In 1973, the Army reactivated Camp McCoy as a permanent training center, and on September 30, 1974, it was officially re-designated as Fort McCoy.

In the 1990s, a second major construction project was undertaken, costing around $140 million. Today, Fort McCoy serves as a Total Force Training Center. Around 100,000 members of the military are trained at the fort every year, and the total number has exceeded 149,000 in the past.

Fort McCoy also is the headquarters of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion-25 (Spades and Clubs) which served a distinguished tour in Iraq and SOUTHCOM (including Cuba, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and earthquake disaster relief to Haiti).

The 181st Infantry Brigade is the largest unit stationed at Fort McCoy. The brigade is responsible for training selected United States Army Reserve and Army National Guard units in the Central-Northern United States to support contingency operations in the Global War on Terror.

Deployments

Fort McCoy was used as a mobilization station during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. This was the first time units had mobilized at Fort McCoy since the Korean War. Seventy-four military units deployed through Fort McCoy, totaling over 9,000 Soldiers, 8% of the reserve forces activated during the Persian Gulf War. Volk Field Air National Guard Base was used as the primary point of departure. In addition, over 3,000 pieces of equipment were deployed from Fort McCoy by train.

The 769th Engineer Battalion and the 927th Sapper Company of the 225th Engineer Brigade of the Louisiana Army National Guard mobilized for deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008 and 2009. The 890th Engineer Battalion of the Mississippi Army National Guard conducted Mobilization training at McCoy from April to June 2008 before deploying to Iraq. The 194th Engineer Brigade mobilized from Fort McCoy to Iraq in 2009 and 190th Engineer Company mobilized to Afghanistan from there in 2010, both are part of the Tennessee Army National Guard.

During February and March 2003, the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 229th Combat Support Equipment (CSE) Engineer Company deployed from Fort McCoy,in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

From December through February 2003-04, the 458th Combat Engineers of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, mobilized through Fort McCoy. One of the soldiers mobilized was an intra-Reserve transfer or "fill" from Boise, Idaho, who later used his experiences there to form a major chapter in the online webcomic "BOHICA Blues." The entirety of Chapter 3, "Mobe Station", takes place at Ft. McCoy and the surrounding area of Sparta and Tomah.

Exercises and training
Fort McCoy hosts large scale exercises at least twice a year: a WAREX (Warrior Exercise) focused on platoon level training, and a CSTX (Combat Support Training Exercise) that focus on Company level training. During both exercises, battalion and brigade headquarters exercise their mission command functions to the units participating in the exercises.  The installation is also hosting Global Medic, an annual joint-field training exercise designed to replicate all aspects of theater combat medical support, and Operation Cold Steel, a major initiative to improve the Army Reserve's gunnery training, from February through May 2018. These exercises are organized by the 86th Training Division and facilitated by the Observer/Controller-Trainers of the 181st Infantry Brigade.
Between December and March, the Cold Weather Operations Course (CWOC) trains personnel to operate specialized military equipment under winter conditions.  This course is open to the Regular Army, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve Soldiers as well as Navy, Marine and Air Force personnel.

Prisoners of war 
Fort McCoy housed many prisoners of war and is known to have held the most Japanese POW's during the war. There were exactly 3,000 Germans being held, 2,700 Japanese and 500 Korean prisoners of war. There was many other places that these prisoners were housed. Franklin D. Roosevelt Issued an executive order entitled Order 9066, that brought these prisoners into the different states and away from the coasts.The first Japanese prisoner of war to enter the camp was captured at Pearl Harbor.After Pearl Harbor many people were afraid of Japanese Americans. They did not know who they could trust. Many also feared that there could be involvement in espionage.

There were five different POW compounds at Fort McCoy. There was two for the Japanese, another two for the Germans and one for the Koreans. After the prisoners were separated accordingly into their compounds they got to see the barracks. There were two barracks in each compound and they consisted of fifty bunk beds, totaling one hundred in each.This is where they would sleep, spend time with one another and write home if they wanted. 

Food was not the biggest issue for POW's. Japanese POW's were served steamed rice, usually once a day, they were offered soy sauce with all their meals and their utensils were replaced with chopsticks.Prisoners at Fort McCoy were fed well compared to other camps that were criticized for how they treated Japanese POW's 

Health was important factor to Fort McCoy. They had an on site hospital that POW's could use if they were ill, they also had access to prescription medicine and could go to camp dentist with dental problems if need be.Fort McCoy proved to be one of the better internment camps. Other camps had horrible conditions where there medical care was not up to standards and essentially not beneficial to the Japanese POW's. 

To many of the prisoners' surprise, they were allowed to practice religion freely. Japanese POW's were given an old run down Catholic church in which they converted it to into a place or worship, buddhist preachings were performed daily and in order to perform them prisoners needed incense.They did not have incense so they asked the YMCA for it and it was granted to them quite quickly. Many camps throughout history outlawed the practice of religion, the goal of these camps was to take everything away from the prisoners that they could.

References

External links
 Fort McCoy Official Site
 Description at GlobalSecurity.org

Category:United States Army posts
Category:Forts in Wisconsin
Category:Buildings and structures in Monroe County, Wisconsin
Category:1909 establishments in Wisconsin