Photo By Scott Sturkol | A scene of Equipment Park is shown May 5, 2022, at Fort McCoy, Wis. Equipment Park is...... read more read more
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For the first time in three years, Fort McCoy will hold its Armed Forces Day Open House on May 21 at the installation’s historic Commemorative Area.
“Everyone is welcome to visit Fort McCoy and enjoy our first Armed Forces Day Open House since 2019,” said Public Affairs Specialist Kaleen Holliday with the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office. “We’re looking forward to a fun-filled event.”
The free event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is open to the public. Adults must be prepared to present IDs upon entering the installation.
The day’s activities are centered on the Commemorative Area, which features the History Center; five World War II-era buildings filled with historical equipment and displays, the outdoor Equipment Park, and Veterans Memorial Plaza.
“And within the Commemorative Area, we are going to have 35 displays set up under tents for more interactive fun,” Holliday said.
Planned activities include guided installation bus tours, a sandbag-filling station, personalized ID tags, camouflage face painting, military equipment displays, marksmanship galleries, and more.
In past years, the shooting galleries and ID tags have been favorites, Holliday said. And both adults and children seem to flock to the military equipment and fire department vehicle displays.
The Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch (NRB) will be bringing back another historically popular display that includes some of the wildlife found on post, such as turtles, frogs, and snakes, said NRB Chief Tim Wilder.
Looking back at the history of the Commemorative Area, a person needs to look back to a day in late June 1995 when the Commemorative Area formally was dedicated as a World War II Commemorative Area. Today, the area serves to commemorate not only the installation’s involvement in World War II, but the entirety of Fort McCoy’s 100-plus years of history.
The work to establish the Commemorative Area began in 1992 during the 50th anniversary of World War II, said former Fort McCoy Public Affairs Officer Linda Fournier, who was responsible for the Commemorative Area from its inception to October 2015.
Camp McCoy, like many other military reservations, grew significantly during the World War II era. Because of this expansion and the construction of the cantonment area, much of what Fort McCoy looks like today is the result of changes that occurred during that war.
“At the time of the 50th anniversary of World War II, Fort McCoy, like many installations of that era, was in the process of demolishing or significantly renovating its World War II-era wood structures,” said Fournier in September 2015. “We felt it was important to our heritage to retain for the future a few of these buildings as the work to modernization and upgrade the cantonment area increased.
“It was deemed appropriate by the command group that it was significantly important to retain a few of these structures as a representation of our past,” Fournier said. “At the time, Fort McCoy had one of the largest remaining inventories of World War II-era facilities anywhere, and DOD (Department of Defense) was supportive of Fort McCoy’s efforts to set aside a collection of such structures as part of our World War II commemoration. Fort McCoy was one of the first installations to do so.”
Between 1992 and 1995, five adjoining World War II troop buildings — three barracks, a “mess hall” facility, and an administrative building — in the 900 block of the cantonment area permanently were set aside for commemoration purposes.
Since then, this area has grown into a 10-acre site. The Equipment Park also was established in the mid-1990s to complement the Commemorative Area buildings. What began as an initial outdoor display of five pieces of equipment (“macro-artifacts”) increased over time to what is today a display of 70 different items.
“All of the items on display in the Equipment Park specifically were selected in keeping with our Commemorative Area mission statement: to present pieces of military equipment that are representative of what was used here on Fort McCoy,” Fournier said.
The Fort McCoy History Center, the next component added to the Commemorative Area, 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 here and the civilian workforce who supported the service personnel who passed through the installation.
The final piece of the Commemorative Area was to build Fort McCoy Veterans Memorial Plaza to honor all who have served. Construction on this memorial began in 2006, as did the work to create five Soldier statues representative of each of the major conflicts that Fort McCoy had been involved with to that point in time: i.e., World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the war on terrorism.
The formal dedication of Veterans Memorial Plaza was June 13, 2009, the date of Fort McCoy’s 100th anniversary. Several descendants of the installation’s founder, Maj. Gen. Robert B. McCoy, attended this dedication, Fournier said. The dedication was the key event in a series of activities held during Fort McCoy’s yearlong centennial observance.
“So everyone come out and see what our newest Armed Forces Day Open House will be like,” Holliday said. “You will see an event that is rich in history. And with our activities, such as the installation tours, they will give you a great idea of the continuing work that is done at Fort McCoy as the Total Force Training Center.”
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: | 05.10.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 05.10.2022 23:46 |
| Story ID: | 420434 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WI, US |
| Web Views: | 694 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Fort McCoy’s 2022 Armed Forces Day Open House set for May 21, by Scott Sturkol, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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