Celebrating 75 years of history "Camp Polk to Fort Polk"

In 1940 during the Louisiana Maneuvers, a camp was established in Vernon Parish known as Camp Polk. These maneuvers involved 19 divisions and over 400,000 soldiers and covered 3,400 square miles. Fort Polk would open and close based on requirements but it would always remain a reminder of the harshness of the Louisiana weather and terrain for those that trained and served here. This base would house German POWs  during WWII, prepare units for the Korean war such as the 45ht Infantry Division of the Oklahoma National Guard. It would later become home to the 1st Armored Division and become known as Fort Polk.

The Vietnam War was on the horizon and Fort Polk would once again prepare troops for war, this time with its infamous training training "Tigerland" and for 12 years it would be the harshest training a soldier would face before moving on to combat. After Vietnam, the 5th Infantry Division would call Ft Polk home. Later the the Division would deploy several times in support of the invasion of Panama and to Germany for REFORGER exercises. It would be deactivated in 1992.

Ft Polk would become home to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) in 1992. This newly formed Regiment would be part of the XVIII Airborne Corps and prepare for worldwide deployments. Fort Polk would also become home to the Joint Readiness Training Center which was previously at Fort Chaffee, AR. The training conducted here would soon take on many aspects as it would prepare units for deployments to Bosnia, Kosovo, Haiti, Southwest Asia, Suriname, Africa and other countries.

In 2005, another transformation would happen at Fort Polk, the 2nd ACR would move to another post and the 4th Brigade 10th Division (MTN) would be activated and with plans to deploy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Already from Fort Polk the 1st MEB and it units had been deploying worldwide and the JRTC had increased the number of rotational units going through the training. Also a new unit had arrived at Ft Polk to train advisors, the 162nd Infantry Brigade was training airmen, sailors and soldiers to deploy worldwide as advisors and trainers.

Veterans from all over the region still come annually to receive medical care and see the post and remember what it was like and renew friendships. Leesville and Deridder continue to be veteran friendly towns to live in. The Lake Charles area is growing and the Alexandria are is too.

Though there continues to be more transitions that are occurring at Ft Polk, this post holds many memories for service members, their families, contractors, and civilian employees that have worked here, trained here and visited. Whether good or bad, this post has contributed to the manner in which we train and the manner in which we have stood together has Americans to defend our rights and I for one am proud to say I have served here at Fort Polk and experienced what she had to offer. I am retired now for 3 years and plan to call this my home and am glad my family and I made the choice we did 7 years ago when we selected to come to Ft Polk as our last duty assignment.

God Bless America.