Photo By Scott Sturkol | This is a news clipping from the Sept. 16, 1944, edition of The Real McCoy newspaper...... read more read more
Subscribe
Fort McCoy, Wis., was established in 1909. Here is a look back at some installation history from September 2024 and back.
80 Years Ago — September 1944
FROM THE SEPT. 2, 1944, EDITION OF THE REAL MCCOY NEWSPAPER: New camp 2 years old; termed ‘last word’ in Army training centers (By Newspaper Staff) — Camp McCoy this week celebrated the second anniversary of the opening of the new camp — marking the birthday without incident but with an accelerated war effort. Every office shop and unit on the post worked harder to speed victory.
Col. George M. MacMullin, post commander, commenting on the anniversary, declared: “Camp McCoy has established an enviable reputation as a training site. It ranks among the nation’s greatest camps. Its personnel — both military and civilian — has been a credit to the United States, and I am sure will continue unceasingly to work toward victory.”
At the camp’s opening two years ago, 50,000 visitors toured the post expressing surprise at its wonders. The Army has continually pointed to Camp McCoy as the last word in training camps. Since its erection two years ago, the camp gained the reputation throughout the nation as being one of the finest. It has pioneered experiments for the Army and has produced fighting men who are today giving excellent accounts of themselves on the battlefields of France, Italy, and in the Pacific.
Built with permanency
All the experience and practice the Army accumulated in building hundreds of training camps across the nation in the months before Pearl Harbor were combined and brought to the full flower in the construction of Greater Camp McCoy.
The new camp, as differentiated from the old camp — now a prisoners of war center — won praise from high-ranking Army officials as the most modern and most beautiful in the Middle West, if not the entire land.
Spacious — it takes in over 6,000 acres of rugged terrain — the camp bears as much resemblance to the first cantonments thrown up following the move to rearm as a city slum does to a modern housing project. The Army gave Camp McCoy the best — building it with permanency.
Hundreds of barracks, 12 chapels, six theaters, 14 post exchanges, a dozen recreation halls, two service clubs, two guest houses, dozens of offices and blocks of warehouses and shops make Camp McCoy a city out of an area where once only jack pine and scrub oak grew.
Only one for artillery
Giving troops advanced combat training was the objective of Camp McCoy. These troops were generally trained in the field and hardened by months of living in the open before coming here. The camp’s rugged terrain, steep ridges, sandy soil, and hundreds of streams made it ideally suited for preparing Soldiers for combat tests.
Its size made it the only Army station in the North Central states capable of handling the big guns of heavy artillery units.
FROM THE SEPT. 16, 1944, EDITION OF THE REAL MCCOY NEWSPAPER: Medal of Honor award given to hero’s dad here; 76th Combat Team stages huge parade (By Newspaper Staff) — The nation’s highest award — the Congressional Medal of Honor — was presented posthumously at Camp McCoy on Friday afternoon by Maj. Gen. William R. Schmidt, 76th Infantry Division commander, to Erland Gibson, Rice Lake, Wis., in recognition of Gibson’s son’s gallantry in action.
Technician Fifth Grade Eric Gunnar Gibson, 24, was killed in Italy after leading his squad on a dangerous mission. Under heavy enemy artillery, machine gun, and rifle fire, Gibson advanced and destroyed four enemy positions, killed five, and captured two German soldiers and secured the left flank of his company before he fell.
Came over from Sweden
A parade of a reinforced division combat team with motorized elements preceded the presentation. In attendance were Mrs. Gibson, the hero’s mother; Cpl. Sven Gibson, 22, his brother, who is in the air force stationed at Shepherd Field, Texas; and a group of Rice Lake legionairres.
40 Years Ago — September 1984
FROM THE SEPT. 6, 1984, EDITION OF THE TRIAD NEWSPAPER: Women trade typewriters for nails (By Lou Ann Mittelstaedt and Crystal Laureano) — Women have been working in “nontraditional” jobs for so long now that fewer jobs can be labeled non-traditional.
Even so, the carpentry section of the Directorate of Facilities Engineering has been an all-male group-that is, until Valerie Isensee came along.
As a civilian personnel office employee for four years, Valerie was getting restless. So, when she saw an announcement for a job in the carpentry section, she decided to apply. “I was tired of working in an office,” she explained. “I didn’t expect to get the job though. When I was told I had been referred I was surprised, and when I got the job I was really surprised,” she said. She started in May.
Since the position is as a trainee, experience wasn’t necessary, but Valerie did enter the job with some knowledge, since her father was a carpenter. As a trainee, most of her knowledge comes from on-the-job training but she also is taking correspondence courses. “All of the guys here are really great,” Valerie said. “They're always willing to help and have even offered to help me with my correspondence courses.”
The admiration she holds for her coworkers is mutual. Dennis Konze, one coworker said, “I've had no problem working with Val. She’s an outstanding worker-she can pull her own weight on the job. I think she knew quite a bit about carpentry when she started and she's willing to work and learn.
“The part about her being a woman in a job like this really has no bearing on whether she can do the job,” he added. “I think she's doing a job she really wants to do, and she does it well.”
Gary Bishop another carpentry shop worker agrees. “The first job she got here was a hard, hot job-roofing for nine weeks. But she really hung in there and has shown everyone that she's real capable,” he said.
Another woman, Charlene Geier, worked in the section just for the summer. A 17-year-old Melrose-Mindoro High School student, Charlie, as she is called, enjoyed the experience.
“I had originally applied for a clerk job but they were all filled so they put me down for a labor-type job. When I found out I was a carpenter —wow!” she recalled. “I was scared and uneasy because I didn’t know what to expect.”
As a minor, Charlie wasn’t allowed to do certain duties involving electrical equipment and had to be under a carpenter’s supervision. Her duties included carpentry, masonry, sawing and measuring.
Don Bordon, Charlie’s work partner said, “She’s really a good worker, and she puts so much into everything she does. We’ve worked together since she started, and we haven’t had any problems.”
“I’ve definitely been satisfied with the work each of them has put out,” said Ron Mroch, foreman of the carpentry/masonry section. “It doesn't matter to me if a carpenter is a man or a woman. The only thing that matters is that the person be capable.”
30 Years Ago — September 1994
FROM THE SEPT. 9, 1994, EDITION OF THE TRIAD NEWSPAPER: POW/MIA Day set for Sept 16 (By Newspaper Staff) — Fort McCoy will commemorate National Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) Recognition Day) with a command retreat ceremony Friday, Sept. 16. The ceremony will take place at 4:15 p.m. at the flagpole in front of Post Headquarters, building 100.
Lenny Hoefferle, a B-17 navigator who spent 13 months as a prisoner of war during World War II, will be the guest speaker. The ceremony is open to members of the Fort McCoy community and the general public. In case of inclement weather, the ceremony will be held at the Community Club, building 905.
FROM THE SEPT. 9, 1994, EDITION OF THE TRIAD NEWSPAPER: RTS-Medical building dedication Sept. 28 (By Newspaper Staff) — A Dedication Ceremony and Open House will be held Wednesday, Sept. 28, at the new Regional Training Site-Medical facility, building 10000, a tenant activity at Fort McCoy. The event will begin at 10 a.m. Members of the Fort McCoy community are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served after the ceremonies. Guests are welcome to tour the new building.
25 Years Ago — September 1999
FROM THE SEPT. 24, 1999, EDITION OF THE TRIAD NEWSPAPER: Ceremony honors sacrifices of POWs, MIAs (By Newspaper Staff) — The U.S. Government is deeply committed to bringing closure to the issue of military personnel who remain in a prisoner of war (POW) or missing in action (MIA) status and are unaccounted for, said Fort McCoy Installation Commander Col. Roy L. Higgins.
Fort McCoy held its annual POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony Sept. 17 at the History Center, building 902, to honor and remember the more than 92,000 personnel unaccounted for since World War I, who were POWs/MIAs, and their family members.
People who attended the ceremony also were given handouts about McCoy’s POW mission during World War II and were welcome to tour the History Center to help Fort McCoy celebrate its 90th anniversary.
The History Center presents exhibits of Fort McCoy's history in chronological order. The POW/MIA flag is symbolic of the nation's commitment to obtaining the fullest possible accounting from all of -America's conflicts, Higgins said at the POW/MIA ceremony.
“The purpose of this day is to honor all Americans who were former POWs, to honor all personnel who are still unaccounted for and to honor their families who still don't know (their fates),” Higgins said. “All of these have made extraordinary sacrifices.”
The POW/MIA accounting process is a humanitarian matter for the nation, Higgins said.
The U.S. Government is committed to the effort of bringing closure to the sad story. The Department of Defense (DoD) has the principal responsibility with helping to resolve the questions about POWs and MIAs; In recent years, a great deal of progress has been made in bringing closure to these issues, especially in Southeast Asia, Korea and the former Soviet Union, now Russia, he said. A joint U.S.-Russian mission is working diligently to account for American servicemembers not accounted for as far back as World War II through the Cold War.
Throughout the Department of Defense, some 700 people located in Washington, Hawaii, Southeast Asia, and other locations are working daily on POW/MIA issues — a significant effort, Higgins said.
Higgins said the statistics need to be considered as a whole because it’s easy to think about POW/MIA Recognition Day without giving thought to the actual scope of the unacounted-for personnel — World War I, 3,350 personnel; World War II, 78,750; Korea, 8,215; Vietnam, 2,054; and the Cold War, 123. Only in Desert Storm in the early 1990s, have all the missing service members during a war been accounted for and sent home, if alive.
“People involved in this effort are consistently seeking new information,” Higgins said. “We have our work cut out for us.”
Higgins said the DOD still receives live-sighting reports and gives high priority to investigating them. Of the more than 200,000 cases of unaccounted-for service members since World War 1, the DOD has accounted for 125,000 of them in some manner.
The families of those still unaccounted for have “tears, a sense of loss, and a sense of not knowing,” he said. “May we honor them and never forget them.”
(Editor’s note: Retired Col. Roy L. Higgins, former commander of Fort McCoy Garrison from July 1997-June 2000, passed away at the age of 78 in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in early September 2024.)
20 Years Ago — September 2004
FROM THE SEPT. 24, 2004, EDITION OF THE TRIAD NEWSPAPER: New Battle Simulation Center construction begins (By Newspaper Staff) — A ground-breaking ceremony for a onestop
Battle Simulation Center (BSC) was held Sept. 13 in the 200 block of Fort McCoy.
Tony Stapleton, director of Training, Mobilization and Security (DTMS), served as the emcee for the ceremony. Stapleton said the project has been about five years in the making and included coordination among the Army Reserve, Fort McCoy, and DTMS. The project will combine three simulation operations at Fort McCoy in one facility.
Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, a proponent of the facility, visited the installation’s simulation facilities in 2003. Kohl played a major role in Congress to help secure congressional approval and funding for the project, Stapleton said. Kohl’s personal representative, Steve Piotrowski, represented him at the ceremony.
“This will be a huge improvement to the facilities we have,” Stapleton said.
Installation Commander Col. Danny G. Nobles said the project fits in well with his three themes: underpinning readiness, being a good neighbor, and practicing environmental stewardship.
“This facility will help Soldiers learn the basics and fundamentals of what they’re doing and help them get more out of their field training,” Nobles said. “This provides relevant and ready training for the future as the Total Force Training Center that Fort McCoy is.”
Nobles said simulation training has been found to increase the percentage of Soldiers qualifying on their first try from 20 percent to 75 percent. This will decrease the amount of ammunition fired downrange at Fort McCoy and help protect the environment.
“This will better train Soldiers and help them return home to their families (after their missions are completed),” he said.
Piatrowski, a Vietnam veteran, said he survived his service because he had a good unit and good training. The new BSC will help Soldiers at Fort McCoy train as they would fight, he said.
Bob Zinsmeister, the DTMS Training Support manager and project point of contact, said the collocation of the simulations will help units needing multiple simulation training reduce their travel time.
Ray Tidd, Omaha District Army Corps of Engineers, Madison Office, said the Army Corps of Engineers will oversee the construction of the project. The facility is on a fast track with a unique design/build concept, he said.
10 Years Ago — September 2014
FROM THE SEPT. 12, 2014, EDITION OF THE REAL MCCOY NEWSPAPER: Installation members attend premiere of Fort McCoy movie (By Scott T. Sturkol) — Dozens of installation community members took part in the first U.S. showing of the movie, “Fort McCoy,” Sept. 3 at Ho-Chunk Cinema in Tomah, Wis.
“Fort McCoy” is a drama written, coproduced and co-directed by Kate Connor, who also stars in the film, playing her real-life grandmother. Based on a true story, she shares the experience of her mother’s family in the American Army and prisoner of war camp at Fort McCoy in the summer of 1944.
In the movie, Connor’s grandparents, Frank and Ruby Stirn, move to Fort McCoy for Frank to become a barber for the American Army, according to a movie press release. Upset that he cannot fight, Frank takes a stand when a Nazi SS officer threatens his wife. The
film continues by telling that story and others, representing the family’s time at Fort McCoy.
Much of the fi lm was shot at Fort McCoy and in La Crosse, Wis. Connor described why she chose to tell this story of her family.
“This is a true story about my family,” said Connor, whose grandparents were at then-Camp McCoy for more than five years in the 1940s. “I heard the stories of my family’s time at Fort McCoy from my grandparents as well as my great grandparents. The movie is just a tiny piece of their history here.”
In writing the screenplay for the movie, Connor said she put all the family stories she learned together, and decided to have the movie set in the summer of 1944.
“(That) was an impactful summer for us during the war after D-Day happened and turned the tide for us in the war,” Connor said.
Connor made visits to Fort McCoy and the local area in preparing her first feature-length movie screenplay.
“Once I had the idea to make it into a movie, I did a solid year of research,” Connor said. “I came to Fort McCoy twice, did microfiche research in the area, I interviewed key players, read books and watched documentaries. Then writing the script took me about nine months in-between other projects.”
Fort McCoy Public Affairs Officer Linda Fournier, said it was an honor to be one of many people from the post who worked with Connor and the movie production staff.
“It was so exciting to work with Kate and her group,” Fournier said. “When we first were contacted, we answered a lot of questions about how to make this movie.
“We then got all the right channels going and began work with movie crew — they are a very professional group,” Fournier said. “It’s such a wonderful story.”
Connor said being able to have Fort McCoy Soldiers and personnel on hand to be among the first to see the movie in the U.S. was special.
“It’s very emotional for me to show the movie to the troops and people here,” Connor said. “Because of the movie’s name and the story it tells, it made perfect sense to show it here first.
“It (also) was a great honor to shoot (this film) on an Army installation, and we are ever grateful for that,” Connor said. “We really want to thank everyone at Fort McCoy — the troops and everyone who has gone through there.”
After the premiere, the movie went nationwide at select theaters and by later this year will be available on other venues. When asked if she thought her grandparents would like the movie that portrays them, Connor said they would.
“I think my grandparents would be very proud of it,” Connor said. “They remembered their time here (at Fort McCoy) fondly. I think they would be honored.”
5 Years Ago — September 2019
FROM THE SEPT. 13, 2019, EDITION OF THE REAL MCCOY NEWSPAPER: Right place, right time: Soldiers deliver heroic response to car accident (By Scott T. Sturkol) — During the early evening of Aug. 15, Sgt. Roger Williams had left Fort McCoy to go back to his hotel in Sparta, Wis., after wrapping up a day of training at the installation. Little did he know his drive back to the hotel would play a role in saving the lives of a grandfather and his two granddaughters.
Just after 6 p.m., the serpentine belt on Williams’ “fairly new” car broke as he was just getting into Sparta after traveling about 8 miles from the post.
“My car started acting up, then my battery light came on, and the car started overheating,” said Williams, who serves in Milwaukee with Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 334th Regiment, 95th Training Division. “It was bad, so I pulled into the Sparta Floral parking lot, which is near a four-way stop.”
Realizing he had something seriously wrong with his car, Williams contacted Sgt. 1st Class Justin McCarthy with the 108th Training Command at Charlotte, N.C., who was still back at Fort McCoy. “I’m not a car guy, so I gave him a call to see if he could help,” Williams said.
McCarthy immediately said he’d be over to help Williams. When McCarthy left Fort McCoy, he also had other Soldiers accompanying him in following vehicles. These Soldiers were: Master Sgt. Ryan Cameron with U.S. Army Reserve Command (USARC) Headquarters of Fort Bragg, N.C.; Sgt. 1st Class Eric Juhl with Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 415th Infantry Regiment of Helena, Mont.; and Sgt. Daniel McElroy with 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 320th Regiment, 95th Training Division at Fort Belvoir, Va.
All of the Soldiers are current or prior drill instructors who were at Fort McCoy from July to August to support Best Warrior and Drill Sergeant of the Year preparatory training for candidates entering U.S. Army-level competitions. Williams said he was just happy to see his fellow Soldiers arrive to help him figure out how to fix his car.
A ‘loud screeching’
The hood was up on Williams’ car, and McCarthy and the others figured out that the problem was a broken serpentine belt.
“I just got on to my phone to see where I could locally find a serpentine belt for my car, and out of nowhere, we hear this loud screeching noise,” Williams said.
The screeching that Williams and the other Soldiers heard around 6:45 p.m. was the sound of a 2007 Pontiac Torrent driven by 63-year-old David R. Turner of Tomah, Wis., jumping a median. It soared through the air into a utility pole directly across the road from where the Soldiers were working on Williams’ car.
“We watched it happen like it was in slow motion,” McElroy said. “From the car jumping the median to crashing into the pole and catching on fire.”
“When that vehicle hit that pole, there was a big explosion with a transformer blowing at the same time,” McCarthy said. “The only thing holding that pole up was the lines above. The utility pole was completely snapped off its base.”
Immediate response
When Williams, McCarthy, McElroy, Juhl, and Cameron saw what was happening, none of them hesitated a second to respond.
“I was already on my phone, so I called 911,” Williams said. “Everyone else was already by the vehicle trying to get to the occupants inside.”
Juhl said there was a lot of smoke, and it was hard to see inside the car.
“We focused on the driver first because we just expected a driver,” Juhl said. “All of the airbags were deployed, and with all the smoke … you really couldn’t see too far into the vehicle. So as we started working on the driver side, (three of us) broke the window and got the door bent down.”
After breaking the window, McCarthy said the smoke in the car started clearing out. Turner was partially awake and asked “how are the girls?”
In the back seat were Turner’s two granddaughters — 4-year-old London and 2-year-old Delilah.
Two of the Soldiers heard the girls speak, and they were able to focus on the girls in the back, Juhl said. They were able to quickly get the girls out.
“They were asking how (their grandfather) was doing right away,” McElroy said. “When we looked in the back of the car, we were able to see the two car seats. One was rear facing and the other was forward facing.”
The girls were taken out of the car first, and Turner was taken out of the vehicle soon thereafter.
“I think the whole thing from the crash ending to getting everyone out of the car took less than two minutes,” Williams said. “We had most everything under control before the first responders arrived just minutes after the crash.”
What are the chances?
Williams said the chance of his car breaking down at that spot at that time, and having that many of his fellow Soldiers on the scene to help with the car fix was slim.
“A serpentine belt should never break on a car with just 16,000 miles,” Williams said, referring to his 2018 model car. “How do you explain how I had to pull in that very parking lot, which is just feet away from where that accident took place? For some reason, we were meant to be there.”
“It really was a case of being at the right place at the right time,” McCarthy said. “It was a very unfortunate accident that occurred, but you can’t think of having a more perfect set of people out there to actually respond to the scene other than regular first responders. The very people who are training people to be the best warriors in the Army are the people who showed up and used their well-rounded expertise to assist this family.”
Juhl said, “I was definitely glad to have been there. We have all this wealth of training, and I’m glad it served a good purpose.”
“We were all there trying to figure out how to get a serpentine belt off a car, but instead we were able to help a family,” McElroy said. “We never thought about where to go or what to do. We just went into action without thinking about it.”
A grateful grandfather
Turner and his granddaughters are all fine with no serious injuries from the accident. Local reports show Turner passed out while driving the car, which was on cruise control, because of a medical issue.
Four of the five Soldiers met with Turner in Tomah on Aug. 23 after the accident to see how he was doing and to meet with local media.
“I remember you guys were talking to me and trying to calm me down,” Turner said to the Soldiers at their meeting. “I remember you taking me out of the vehicle. … You are my guardian angels … all of you.
“I don’t really know what else to say other than thank you,” he said.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 09.25.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 09.25.2024 14:15 |
| Story ID: | 481752 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 4 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, This Month in Fort McCoy History — September 2024, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
