Army Heritage: Fort McCoy History Center offers insight to Fort McCoy’s, Army’s past

Photo By Scott Sturkol | Artifacts are shown at the Fort McCoy, Wis., History Center on June 9, 2023. The History Center is part of the installation’s Commemorative Area. The Fort McCoy History Center opened in 1999 during the installation’s 90th anniversary. The center features exhibits and displays of artifacts, photographs, and period memorabilia. The History Center serves to tell the story of Fort McCoy based on the military personnel who trained at the installation and the civilian workforce who supported the service personnel who passed through the installation. And, the 900 block of Fort McCoy and the 11-acre area surrounding it are at the hub of the fort’s history-preservation efforts and is called the Commemorative Area. The Commemorative Area consists of five World War II-era buildings set aside to also help tell Fort McCoy's unique story. These facilities are representative of the types found in the cantonment area when it was constructed in 1942. Three of the buildings — an administrative facility, a dining facility, and a barracks — are set up to depict Soldier life during the 1940s. Display items include a World War II chapel, bunk beds, footlockers, mannequins, and potbelly stoves. Another building highlights four different modern military training venues, and a separate facility shows various training aids. The area also has the Equipment Park and Veterans Memorial Plaza. (U.S. Army Photo by Scott T. Sturkol, Public Affairs Office, Fort McCoy, Wis.)  

FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES

06.16.2023

Story by Scott Sturkol                                                                                               

Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office           

Since 1999, the Fort McCoy History Center in the installation’s historic Commemorative Area has been a go-to stop for learning about not only Fort McCoy’s storied past but also that of the U.S. Army, the U.S. Army Reserve, and even the Army National Guard.

For more than a century, Fort McCoy, which was previously Camp McCoy, and before that Camp Robinson and Camp Emory-Upton, has had a stake on things that have affected the world stage to include World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Operation Desert Storm, the Global War on Terrorism and Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, and more recently Operation Allies Welcome.

Through every major operation, and everything else supported, that history is remembered in the Fort McCoy History Center.

In 2015, former Fort McCoy Public Affairs Officer Linda Fournier described how the History Center was improved after several months of work to renovate the interior and exterior of the facility. Fournier said then those interior renovations provided for expanded exhibit floor space, improved lighting, and installation of energy efficient heating and air-conditioning systems. Exterior improvements included new steps and a ramp to improve access for visitors.

During its reopening in 2015 on Sept. 11, visitors experienced the results of those improvements firsthand, especially the increased floor space, which allowed for the display of more of the installation’s historical collection.

The History Center features exhibits as well as displays of artifacts, photographs, and memorabilia that tell the story of Fort McCoy since its founding in 1909. The center first was opened in 1999 in building 902 when the Fort McCoy observed its 90th anniversary.

Whether it’s Maj. Gen. Robert B. McCoy’s World War I gas mask, horseshoes from the early
camp stables, World War II-era uniforms, or items from the 1980 Cuban Refugee Resettlement mission, the History Center off ers exhibits spanning from Fort McCoy’s earliest beginnings to the installation’s involvement in the war on terrorism.

In 2022, the center also received two new additions as well. In July 2022, Alan McCoy, grandson of Maj. Gen. Robert Bruce McCoy for whom Fort McCoy is named after had visited the installation with his family members, and with him he brought a century-old artifact he’d received in the form of a wood crate that included the words stamped on it: “CAMP EMERY UPTON” and “CAMP ROBINSON.”

The wood crate artifact brought by Alan McCoy to the Fort McCoy History Center was the first to be brought to the center of its kind, and it’s uniquely one of the few original Camp Robinson/Camp Emery Upton-related artifacts in the center. Also added to the center was a special document McCoy’s founder received from the governor of Wisconsin that was also donated by Alan McCoy. Learn more about the crate donation at https://www.dvidshub.net/news/429892/artifact-donated-fort-mccoy-founders-grandson-speaks-installations-origins.

Earlier in 2023, Vietnam War veteran and former Fort McCoy Supervisory Public Safety Dispatcher Alan Blencoe’s Army uniform was officially placed in a display case March 6 in his remembrance by his wife Kathy and now retired Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services (DES) Director Mark Reaves at the History Center.

Blencoe, a former Army sergeant who served in Vietnam and the Army from February 1970 to December 1971, served as the supervisory public safety dispatcher at Fort McCoy from April 2011 to May 2019 when he retired. He died unexpectedly Sept. 14, 2021. See more about that artifact at https://www.dvidshub.net/news/439889/vietnam-war-era-army-uniform-fort-mccoy-alum-donated-family-displayed-fort-mccoy-history-center.

Other artifacts eventually going to be set into display at the center include items from Operation Allies Welcome, the mission supporting Afghan guests at Fort McCoy in 2021 and 2022, and a special time capsule dating back to the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom that was found in a barracks in late 2022 at Fort McCoy.

In November 2004, the 617th Military Police Company of the Kentucky National Guard was one of many military units completing their mobilization at Fort McCoy for deployment. It was in that month the unit wrapped up their training at Wisconsin’s only Army installation and prepared to head off to Iraq for a year deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Before they left, however, some members of the unit decided they'd put together a “time capsule” of sorts in a plastic drawer they got from the Fort McCoy Exchange, put some mementos in it, and stash it away in the walls of one of the hundreds of barracks on the installation’s cantonment area.

“I think the concept was we believed when we got back, we were we were gonna be able to open it when we (got back),” said Command Sgt. Maj. Timothy F. Nein, battalion sergeant major of the 198th Military Police Battalion of the Kentucky Army National Guard at Louisville. At the time, Nein was a staff sergeant with the 617th.

But after their deployment, members of the unit never went back to find their time capsule. Whoever stashed the drawer of mementos into the wall did it well because it remained undiscovered for 19 years. The time capsule was found in fall 2022 when contractors were beginning major renovations on 200 of the barracks at Fort McCoy.

When workers discovered the capsule, they made sure to give it to members of the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works, who in turn presented it to the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office for eventual presentation into the Fort McCoy History Center. The time capsule and its story is detailed more in the article at https://www.dvidshub.net/news/440516/time-capsule-left-decorated-kentucky-guard-mp-unit-found-fort-mccoy-barracks-nearly-two-decades-after-unit-left.

All of this is just a small idea of the Fort McCoy History Center’s long list of items and things to see.

For more information about the Fort McCoy History Center, contact the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office at 608-388-2407, by email at [e-mail], or go online to see the Commemorative Area section in the Fort McCoy Guide at https://www.dvidshub.net/publication/issues/66725.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” 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 nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.

• Date Taken: 06.16.2023
• Date Posted: 06.16.2023 01:35
• Story ID: 447364
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US