| Camp Wolters was officially
turned over to the Army at 4:45p.m. on March 22, 1941, in a ceremony
near the I.R.T.C. headquarters. Col. Fay W. Brabson, then Camp
Commander, accepted nearly 5,000 keys to Wolters buildings in a ceremony
broadcast by a Fort Worth radio station.
Actually, some 7,000 men were already
there when the Army took over Camp Wolters. Cadremen had been there more
than a month, and the 58th Battalion was filling with the first
selectees. The first selectees arrived on March 13, 1941, and were
assigned to Companies A and B of the 58th Battalion
The early arrivals found warm and
comfortable barracks and adequate provisions for their feeding and
clothing, but their company areas were islands in a vast quagmire of mud
littered by odds and ends of construction material and churned by heavy
trucks and tractors.
Ground for Camp Wolters had been
broken Nov. 12, 1940, but a record rainy spell kept work almost at a
standstill until the beginning of 1941. During peak employment, more
than 19,000 men worked at top speed to have the camp ready when the
first soldiers arrived.
When training began there were
still no sidewalks and few gravel roads. Extremely heavy rains continued
throughout the Spring, and the first few months of training consisted
largely of wading through ankle-deep mud by day and cleaning shoes and
equipment at night.
Four officers commanded Camp
Wolters in its first year. Colonel Brabson was commander until Brig.
Gen. William H. Simpson arrived on April 5, 1941. General Simpson was
here until October 14, 1941, when Col. Henry C. McLean took over command
until Brig. Gen. E.F. Reinhardt arrived November 9, 1941.
Under these officers the camp was
expanded and improved in size and efficiency. Even after the camp was
activated, millions of dollars were later spent to clean and beautify
the grounds and add new sidewalks, roads, ranges maneuver areas and
buildings.
Even more impressive than these
additions to the physical equipment was Camp Wolters rise to national
prominence as a great reservoir of trained infantry personnel.
Techniques of training developed or improved at Camp Wolters won
commendation from high War Department officers, and officers and enlisted
men were widely used to staff new or expanding camps.
Source: "The Camp Wolters
Longhorn," p.1, Vol.1 No.18, March 19, 1942.
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