Photo By Scott Sturkol | Military family members visit parts of the historic Fort McCoy Commemorative Area on...... read more read more
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Military family members visited parts of the historic Fort McCoy Commemorative Area on Aug. 1, 2025, during a special opening of the area at Fort McCoy, Wis.
More than a dozen family members reviewed the displays and attractions at the area following participation in a special event nearby to the area. Together they walked through all the areas of the Fort McCoy Commemorative Area.
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 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.
Some of the visitors also took a chance to tour Equipment Park. The Equipment Park is an outdoor display of historic and present-day equipment representative of the types used on the installation. The design of the park allows for display of 70 pieces of equipment, ranging from helicopters and howitzers to trucks and trailers.
Visitors also checked out Veterans Memorial Plaza. Construction on Veterans Memorial Plaza began in 2006, as did the work to create the five Soldier statues on the memorial 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, according to the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.
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. The dedication was the key event in a series of activities held during Fort McCoy’s yearlong centennial observance.
Ever since its dedication, the Veterans Memorial Plaza has been the center of many events, including annual Armed Forces Day Open House events, dozens of official events, dozens of tours, and met by thousands of people throughout the years.
For more information about the Commemorative Area, contact the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office at 502-898-2407 or by email at usarmy.mccoy.imcom-central.list.pao-admin@mail.mil.
Fort McCoy history is also highlighted in every monthly issue of The Real McCoy — Fort McCoy’s official newspaper — in the “This Month in Fort McCoy History” column. See past editions at https://www.dvidshub.net/publication/1002/the-real-mccoy.
Learn more about Army history by visiting the Army Center for Military History at https://history.army.mil.
And learn more about Wisconsin’s history by visiting the Wisconsin Historical Society at https://www.wisconsinhistory.org.
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: | 09.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.07.2025 22:27 |
| Story ID: | 547472 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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