Camp Blanding

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Camp Blanding
Starke, Florida
Type Military Reservation
Built 1940
In use 1940 - Present
Controlled by Florida National Guard

Camp Blanding is the primary military reservation and training station for the Florida National Guard, located in Starke, Clay County, Florida which is near Jacksonville. The site measures approximately 73,000 acres (300 km²).

Camp Blanding is the primary training site for the state's combat arms brigade, the 53rd Infantry Brigade (RSTA), and is home to a detachment of the 20th Special Forces Group. Camp Blanding also houses several units of the Florida Air National Guard to include the 202nd Red Horse Squadron, 159th Weather Flight, Weather Readiness Training Center (WRTC), and the joint Army/Air 44th Civil Support Team. It is also the training location for military counter-drug units and for law enforcement agencies in Florida.

Camp Blanding owes its location on the shore of Kingsley Lake to the US Navy’s desire to establish a Naval Air Station (NAS) on the banks of the St. Johns River, south of Jacksonville. The site was already the location of the Florida National Guard’s Camp Foster and negotiations were started for a land swap. In mid 1939, the transaction was accomplished and the state armory board chose as compensation a tract of 30,000 acres in Clay County as a National Guard camp and training site. The National Guard Officers Association of Florida recommended the new camp be named in honor of Lt General Albert H. Blanding. The War Department agreed and Camp Blanding’s history began.

General Blanding (9 Nov 1876 through 26 Dec 1970) was one of Florida’s most distinguished soldiers. He graduated from the East Florida Seminary (now the University of Florida) in 1894 and began his military service to the state and nation. He was promoted to Colonel in 1909 and commanded the 2nd Florida Infantry during the Mexican Border Service in 1916 and 1917. During World War I, he commanded the 53rd Brigade, 27th Division. He was promoted to Major General in 1924 and commanded the 31st Infantry Division until 1940. He also served as Chief of the National Guard Bureau until his retirement and promotion to Lieutenant General in 1940.

In 1940, Camp Blanding was leased to the Army as an active duty training center. The post was originally used by New England and Southern troops preparing for deployment overseas. However, during the course of the war, Camp Blanding served as an infantry replacement training center, induction center, prisoner of war compound, and a separation center. At the height of the war, thanks to leases with local landowners, Camp Blanding sprawled over more than 170,000 acres. From 1940 to 1945, more than 800,000 soldiers received all or part of their training here.

After the war, the state’s 30,000 acres was returned to the Armory Board and by 1948 most of the buildings were sold and moved off post. In the early 1950s the Federal Government deeded additional land to the state for use as a National Guard training facility, but until 1970 the post saw only limited use by the military.

In the 1970s an expansion program began upgrading the post facilities and in 1981, the Federal Government redesignated Camp Blanding as a Class A military installation. The designation qualified the post for use by greater numbers of troops with more diversified training. Upgrading facilities and training areas continues today.

In 1983, the first 105mm artillery firing points were used since World War II. Tank ranges have been upgraded and Tank Tables I through VI can be fired. In addition to improved facilities and ranges, a parachute drop zone and an airfield have expanded Camp Blanding’s training capacity and the Navy utilizes a bombing and staffing target in the southern portion of the post.


[edit] THE GERMAN PRISONER OF WAR FACILITY, 1942-1946

During World War II, 378,000 Prisoners of War were incarcerated in the United States. Their odyssey took them from the deserts of northern Africa, the mountains of central Italy and the hedgerows of Normandy to POW Camps located in 45 states. In Florida, Camp Blanding was the main POW base where 4,000 prisoners were administered.

At first, there were a number of enemy aliens who were confined in Camp Blanding only for a short time. As a POW Compound, it contained both a navy and army compound which could hold up to 1200 prisoners. There were also nearly 3,000 men incarcerated in eleven, later fifteen branch camps, and each holding about 250 to 300 men.

The first group of fourteen U-Boat (submarine) arrived on September 24, 1942. The Camp Blanding navy compound was one of four in the United States. German army prisoners did not arrive until November 1943.

Housing in the compounds consisted of simple wooden, sixteen feet by sixteen feet, victory type hutments and mess halls, similar to those that had been built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

In 1944, several branch camps were established to provide POW labor for private industries whose own work forces had been depleted by the draft. The Geneva Convention allowed only privates to do such work, and they had to be supervised by their own non-commissioned officers.

The United States Government realized 25 million dollars from the labor of German prisoners through its policy of paying them 80 cents a day in canteen checks while receiving payment at prevailing labor wage rates.

When starting in 1946, the German prisoners were repatriated, the POW camp was closed. In later years, several of its sites were marked and are being maintained as Historical Sites. One of these sites is a small cemetery where seven POWs had been buried. Their remains were later exhumed and laid to rest in the Fort Benning, Georgia, National Military Cemetery.


[edit] MILITARY FORMATIONS THAT TRAINED AT CAMP BLANDING, 1940-1946

INFANTRY DIVISIONS

   * 1st Infantry Division
   * 31st Infantry Division
   * 63rd Infantry Division
   * 29th Infantry Division
   * 36th Infantry Division
   * 66th Infantry Division
   * 30th Infantry Division
   * 43rd Infantry Division
   * 79th Infantry Division

INFANTRY REGIMENTS (Separate)

   * 91st Infantry 156th Infantry
   * 102nd Infantry 508th Parachute Infantry
   * 124th Infantry (Separate) (I)

CAVALRY REGIMENTS

   * 6th Cavalry

TANK DESTROYER BATTALIONS

   * 631st Tank Destroyer Bn
   * 643rd Tank Destroyer Bn
   * 744th Tank Destroyer Bn

FIELD ARTILLERY BRIGADE (Separate)

   * 74th Field Artillery Brigade

FIELD ARTILLERY GROUPS

   * 141ST FA GROUP (Motorized)
   * 166th FA Group (Motorized)

FIELD ARTILLERY REGIMENTS

   * 166th Field Artillery (155MM Howitzer)
   * 179th Field Artillery (155MM Howitzer)
   * 192nd Field Artillery ((155MM Howitzer)


[edit] External links

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