From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Camp Bowie

Field	Value
name	Camp Bowie
nickname	Camp Bowie Training Facility
image_skyline	Camp Bowie Texas Armory.jpg
image_caption	Camp Bowie Armory
pushpin_map	Texas
pushpin_label_position
pushpin_map_caption	Location within the state of Texas
map_caption	Location within Brown county
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	United States
subdivision_type1	State
subdivision_name1	Texas
subdivision_type2	County
subdivision_name2	Brown
leader_title
area_total_acre	9297
population_as_of	2000
population_density_km2	auto
timezone	Central (CST)
utc_offset	-6
timezone_DST	CDT
utc_offset_DST	-5
elevation_ft	1458
coordinates
postal_code_type	ZIP codes
postal_code	76801
area_code	325

Army Engineer Company training at Camp Bowie

Camp Bowie is a Texas Military Department training center located in west-central Texas just to the south of Brownwood.

History

Camp Bowie, named in honor of the Texas patriot James Bowie, was a military training facility during World War II, and was the third camp in Texas to be so named. From 1940 to 1946, it grew to be one of the largest training centers in Texas.

In 1940, the war situation in Europe caused the United States Congress to determine that the time had arrived to strengthen the defense system. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was handed the power to mobilize the National Guard units. The 36th Division of the Texas National Guard unit arrived at Camp Bowie, located then in Fort Worth, in mid-December for their year's training, but before training was finished, war had been declared.

On September 19, 1940, the War Department announced that a camp would be built at Brownwood, Texas. Work began at the campsite on September 27, 1940. The camp was the first major defense project in the state, with no scarcity of labor when the building work began.

In 1943, the first German prisoners of war arrived; many were members of Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps. The 2,700 men worked as day laborers for the farms in central Texas.

On August 1, 1946, the War Department notified Texas members of Congress that the camp had been declared "surplus." The Civilian War Assets Administration was to take charge and began the distribution of the land and buildings.

Camp Bowie suffered a large grass fire in July 2008, where several hundred acres of dry, grassy areas of the facility were burned.

Camp Bowie remains an active military training station and recently completed construction of new facilities, including a firing range and several ammunition storage bunkers.

References

(1979). "Nazi Prisoners of War in America". Stein and Day.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

buildings-and-structures-in-brown-county,-texas military-camps-in-the-united-states installations-of-the-united-states-army-national-guard military-facilities-in-texas 1940-establishments-in-texas texas-military-department texas-military-forces execution-sites-in-the-united-states military-installations-established-in-1940

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Camp Bowie — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report