Fort Wolters facts for kids
Fort Wolters was a large United States military base located near Mineral Wells, Texas. It started as Camp Wolters in 1925 and was an Army camp until 1946. During World War II, it became a very important training center for soldiers. It was even the biggest place in the U.S. for training new infantry soldiers (foot soldiers) for a while.
During World War II, Camp Wolters also held German prisoners of war. After the war, the camp closed down for a few years. It reopened in 1951 as an Air Force base. Its new job was to train Air Force engineers.
Two famous soldiers from World War II trained at Camp Wolters. One was Audie Murphy, and the other was Eddie Slovik.
Audie Murphy completed his basic training at Camp Wolters. He became one of the most honored American soldiers of World War II. He received almost every military award for bravery from the U.S. Army. He also got awards from France and Belgium for his heroism. When he was just 19, Murphy earned the Medal of Honor. This was for bravely holding off an entire group of German soldiers by himself for an hour. This happened in France in January 1945. He then led a successful counterattack even though he was wounded and out of ammunition.
Eddie Slovik also came to Camp Wolters for basic military training on January 24, 1944. After his training, he was sent to France as a replacement soldier.
Training Engineers for the Air Force (1951-1956)
In 1947, the U.S. Air Force needed to improve old airfields and build new ones. This was especially important to support their operations in Korea. At that time, there wasn't a special group of soldiers to do this construction work. So, a temporary unit called SCARWAF was created. SCARWAF stands for Special Category Army Personnel With the Air Force. These were Army soldiers who worked with the Air Force. Their job was to build and fix airfields.
Camp Wolters was one of the places that trained these SCARWAF units. Later, it also trained the Aviation Engineer replacements. The base was also used to store equipment for the Air Force.
Becoming a Helicopter Training Center (1956-1973)
In 1956, Camp Wolters went back to being an Army base. It became home to the United States Army Primary Helicopter School. This school taught soldiers how to fly helicopters. In 1963, the base was made a "permanent" military base. It was then officially renamed Fort Wolters.
The base started with one main heliport (a place for helicopters to land). It also had four smaller training areas called stage fields. At its busiest, Fort Wolters had three main heliports. These were Main Heliport, Downing Field, and Dempsey Field. It also had twenty-five stage fields. Many of these stage fields were named after places in Vietnam. They were even set up on the base to be in the same positions relative to each other as the real places in Vietnam. This helped pilots practice flying in a realistic setting. The other stage fields had Western-themed names.
In June 1963, the post was officially renamed Fort Wolters. It became a permanent military installation and the main U.S. Army Primary Helicopter Center.
What Happened After the War
Fort Wolters was officially closed in 1973. Today, the land where the base once stood is used as an industrial park. Different businesses and organizations are located there now. These include Ventamatic, Ltd, GR's Workshop, and a branch of Weatherford College. The Texas Army National Guard also has a training center there.
