Courtesy Photo | A conceptual sketch of a Japanese training village and buildings are shown on display...... read more read more
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Fort McCoy, Wis., was established in 1909. Here is a look back at some installation history from June 2020 and back.
75 Years Ago — June 1945
The site of the “Oriental village,” to be built at Camp McCoy to train infantrymen in Japanese warfare, was chosen on Stillwell creek, announced Col. George M. MacMullin, post commander, in June 1945.
The village was planned by Lt. Col. Halbert E. Fillinger, post engineer, and Maj. Ervin A. Walser, training director, with the assistance of Sgt. Arnold Rupiper, who served with an engineer outfit in Saipan and elsewhere in the South Pacific, and Pfc. Henry J. Wenclawski, artist and city planning expert with the training division.
The plan for the realistic village included 25 permanent buildings, including a Shinto shrine in a temple. Between these structures were mock buildings with false fronts and pop-up targets like human figures in doors and windows, which were shot at with live ammunition.
The village was planned for the bank of the lake, formed by Stillwell dam, affording an amphibious assault front for attacking troops.
Fortifications guarded the beach before the village and extended behind through Raymore pass in the ridge of hills beyond, Fillinger said. Both log and concrete pillbox fortifications were featured. The plans included building a replica of Japanese defensive positions encountered by the troops fighting in the Pacific.
The War Department approved expenditure of $50,000 on the fighting village.
60 Years Ago — June 18, 1960
The 32nd Infantry Division Band from Madison (Wis.) and nearby Spartans 2nd Reconnaissance Squadron, 105th Armor, were honored when then-Gov. Gaylord Nelson paid his annual Governors Day visit to the "Red Arrow" Division.
The Band won the Eisenhower Trophy, emblematic of superiority over all other National Guard units in Wisconsin, for the second straight year and the third time in recent years.
50 Years Ago — June 8, 1970
Col. Richard A. Creoelius became commander of Camp McCoy at the change-of-command ceremony held on the post parade field June 8, 1970.
Lt. Gen. V. P. Mock, commanding general, Fifth U. S. Army, flew to Camp McCoy from Chicago to participate in the ceremony. The Fifth Army commander received the post colors from from departing Commander Col. Joseph E. Venables and passed them to Crecelius, officially marking the change in command.
During the ceremony, Venables was presented the Meritorious Service Medal by Mock. The award recognized Venables for exceptionally meritorious conduct in performance of outstanding services while commander of Camp McCoy.
30 Years Ago — June 29, 1990
Fort McCoy added a new dimension to the scope of its multifaceted training capabilities in June 1990.
The post's new Tank Qualification Range was used for the first time June 11, 1990, when tanks and crews from Company D, 1st Battalion, 632nd Armor, of Mosinee, Wis., underwent individual crew qualification testing.
The opening of the new range resulted in significant savings for tank units by reducing the distance they had to travel to receive proper training.
Previously, the closest tank qualification ranges to the Midwest were located at Fort Knox, Ky.; Fort Riley, Kan.; and Gowen Field, Idaho.
The new range consiseds of two moving silhouette targets and 31 stationary pop-up targets. The moving targets represented a Soviet-made T-72 tank and a Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty 1 troop carrier, while the stationary targets depicted enemy armor and troop targets, including rocket-propelled grenade teams. The moving targets traversed the range on a “mover” that traveled on railroad tracks. The mover was powered by a device fabricated by Range Maintenance personnel.
20 Years Ago — June 1, 2000
Fort McCoy's new installation command sergeant major arrived June 1, just in time to get oriented to the peak training season, and he hit the ground running.
Command Sgt. Maj. Nick A. Piacentini Jr., came to Fort McCoy from the 3rd Medical Command at Decatur, Ga., where he served from May 1998 to May 2000.
Piacentini said “the welcome he has received was more than he ever expected. Everybody he's met has been eager to give him a briefing about their directorates and work sections.”
10 Years Ago — June 13, 2010
Harry Hendersin, a World War II veteran, used a Skype connection at Fort McCoy to reconnect with a Holocaust survivor he hadn’t seen in more than 65 years.
A World War II veteran whose unit helped liberate a concentration camp and who helped one of the survivors obtain a new dress was reunited with her more than 65 years later via the internet June 13 at Fort McCoy. The reunion was done over Skype at the Fort McCoy Welcome Center.
Fort McCoy personnel agreed to serve as the go-between and offer the use of suitable computer equipment. Hendersin, 89, of Sparta was with the 506th, 101st Airborne Division in 1945, when unit members helped liberate the survivors at the Dachau, Germany concentration camp.
Hendersin and the woman, Marie Lipstadt-Pinhas, who was then a young girl of 14 and now is nearing 80, never saw each other again after their war encounter.
The memories came back to both during the reunion via Skype. Through her daughter, who was present at the reunion, Lipstadt-Pinhas told Hendersin she “was very grateful he got me the dress at a German store because I was very badly dressed at that time,” she said. “I was dirty and ugly (after the time in the concentration camp.) I would like to thank you for the dress.”
The war was not over at that time, so Hendersin had to return to his unit and continue serving in the war, and he and Lipstadt-Pinhas have had no contact since 1945.
Lipstadt-Pinhas often speaks to school students in Belgium about her experiences in the concentration camp and mentions Hendersin’s kindness. “Harry is well-known in Belgium,” her daughter said. Lipstadt-Pinhas’ daughter said her mother never forgot Hendersin, and for many years, she attempted to find and thank him.
Hendersin’s granddaughter, Kim Meyer, said his unit fought in Bastogne, Luxembourg, which was a part of the Battle of the Bulge, and he also parachuted with the 101st into Normandy on D-Day.
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services each year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
| Date Taken: | 06.12.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 06.12.2020 17:25 |
| Story ID: | 372063 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 244 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, This Month in Fort McCoy History: June 2020, by Theresa R Fitzgerald, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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