Five Soldiers with the 326th Military History Detachment visited the Fort McCoy Commemorative Area and History Center on Aug. 3 to learn how the installation preserves, interprets and sustains its military history.
The visit provided the Soldiers an opportunity to tour Fort McCoy’s historic displays and learn about the processes behind maintaining a collection that documents the installation’s history from its establishment in 1909 through its present-day mission.
Fort McCoy Public Affairs Specialist Melissa Dubois presented the Commemorative Area and its historic display space to the five visitors. During the visit, the Soldiers asked questions about how Fort McCoy sustains the historical area, where artifacts and exhibits originate, the installation's plans for the future of its historical preservation program and whether donations are accepted.
The Soldiers also were interested in how Fort McCoy works with the U.S. Army Center of Military History, or CMH, in preserving and presenting Army history.
The 326th Military History Detachment is an Army Reserve unit whose mission includes documenting Army history through activities such as collecting firsthand accounts and conducting oral-history interviews. Army historical records include examples of 326th MHD Soldiers conducting interviews to preserve firsthand accounts for future historical research. The unit is currently listed among the military history detachments assigned to the Army Reserve’s 99th Readiness Division.
That mission made the Fort McCoy visit particularly relevant as the Soldiers examined how an installation-level historical program can preserve physical artifacts, photographs, memorabilia, buildings and other items while using them to tell a broader Army story.
The Fort McCoy Commemorative Area began taking shape in the early 1990s as the installation worked to preserve several World War II-era buildings. The area was formally dedicated as a World War II Commemorative Area in June 1995. It has since grown into a larger historical campus that includes the historic buildings, Fort McCoy History Center, Equipment Park, and Veterans Memorial Plaza.
The Fort McCoy History Center opened in 1999 and features artifacts, photographs and period memorabilia that help tell the story of the military personnel who trained at Fort McCoy and the civilian workforce that supported them. The Commemorative Area's historic buildings also help visitors understand what Soldier life was like at the installation during the World War II era.
During the Aug. 3 visit, the 326th MHD Soldiers also shared their perspective on the importance of Fort McCoy’s historical displays. They noted that the U.S. Army Center of Military History promotes the Fort McCoy History Center as an excellent historical display, highlighting the center as an example of the type of installation-level history program that can effectively preserve and communicate Army heritage.
The exchange provided an opportunity for Fort McCoy and the 326th MHD to compare approaches to military history preservation and discuss the importance of maintaining historical collections for future generations.
For military history professionals, places such as the Fort McCoy Commemorative Area provide more than a collection of old buildings and artifacts. They preserve tangible connections to the Soldiers, families, employees and military missions that shaped an installation over generations. The visit also reinforced the continuing relationship between Fort McCoy's local historical preservation efforts and the Army’s broader mission of documenting and preserving its institutional history.
Today, the Fort McCoy Commemorative Area serves as a central location for telling the installation’s history and honoring the generations of service members who trained and served at Wisconsin's only U.S. Army installation.
The Aug. 3 visit by the 326th Military History Detachment demonstrated that preserving that history is not only important to Fort McCoy, but also provides an opportunity for Army historical professionals to learn from one another and strengthen the Army’s collective effort to preserve its heritage.
Fort McCoy has supported America’s armed forces since 1909. Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The post’s varied terrain, state-of-the-art ranges, new as well as renovated facilities, and extensive support infrastructure combine to provide military personnel with an environment in which to develop and sustain the skills necessary for mission success.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984. Learn more about Fort McCoy online athttps://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on DVIDS by visitinghttps://www.dvidshub.net/unit/FMPAO.
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.”