Camp Bowie Explained

Camp Bowie
Nickname:Camp Bowie Training Facility
Pushpin Map:Texas
Pushpin Map Caption:Location within the state of Texas
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:United States
Subdivision Type1:State
Subdivision Name1:Texas
Subdivision Type2:County
Subdivision Name2:Brown
Area Total Acre:9297
Population As Of:2000
Population Density Km2:auto
Timezone:Central (CST)
Utc Offset:-6
Timezone Dst:CDT
Utc Offset Dst:-5
Elevation Ft:1458
Coordinates:31.6581°N -98.9572°W
Postal Code Type:ZIP codes
Postal Code:76801
Area Code:325

Camp Bowie is a Texas Military Department training center located in west-central Texas on the southern outskirts of Brownwood.

History

Camp Bowie, named in honor of the Texas patriot James Bowie, was a military training facility during World War II, and was the third camp in Texas to be so named. From 1940 to 1946, it grew to be one of the largest training centers in Texas.

In 1940, the war situation in Europe caused the United States Congress to determine that the time had arrived to strengthen the defense system. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was handed the power to mobilize the National Guard units. The 36th Division of the Texas National Guard unit arrived at Camp Bowie, located then in Fort Worth, in mid-December for their year's training, but before training was finished, war had been declared.

On September 19, 1940, the War Department announced that a camp would be built at Brownwood, Texas. Work began at the campsite on September 27, 1940. The camp was the first major defense project in the state, with no scarcity of labor when the building work began.

In 1943, the first German prisoners of war arrived; many were members of Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps.[1] The 2,700 men worked as day laborers for the farms in central Texas.

On August 1, 1946, the War Department notified Texas members of Congress that the camp had been declared "surplus." The Civilian War Assets Administration was to take charge and began the distribution of the land and buildings.

Camp Bowie suffered a large grass fire in July 2008, where several hundred acres of dry, grassy areas of the facility were burned.

Camp Bowie remains an active military training station and recently completed construction of new facilities, including a firing range and several ammunition storage bunkers.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Krammer. Arnold. Nazi Prisoners of War in America. 1979. Stein and Day. New York. 0812825713. 43–44,207,260. registration.