![]() I was already FAA rated Airplane Single and Multiengine Land, Single and Multiengine Sea, Rotorcraft Helicopter, Glider. I arrived at 18, bullet proof, and horney as a goat. Was sent to Fort Wolthers in Jan 67 after 2 months at Fort Polk. God bless all of your service to our country to help keep our country free. I can't wait to get my mom to this site, as she will have some great memories looking at the pictures, and reading your posts. She shouted from the distance, that I wasn't allowed to as it was a prison now. I told her my dad was ststioned there years ago, and I was just taking pictures. We drove into the Camp Wolters base to take pictures, and a big lady in a guard uniform, yelled out at me as to why I was there. It was pretty run-down looking when we were there. My parents and my twin sister and I lived in the house (it was a duplex in 1956), which is across the street from the Dairy Queen. The hosputal was a government center, and it looked like very low-income people living across the street. My husband and I went back to Texas for memories. He was granted a leave because my twin sister was so sick, and we headed back to Minnesota. He played the trumpet in the Army Band, I believe from 1955-1956. My twin sister and I were born at the Nazareth Hospital in June if 1956 while my dad was at Camp Wolters in the Army. Let me know if you would like copies of the pictures. I'm 94 now but Joe and I had 69 years together. I enjoy reading all the comments you've received. I have a few pictures of the parade grounds and barracks at Wolters, very tiny black and whites - and one of the USO where I spent most of my days because they had an old pedal sewing machine which I used. Joe was there only 3 days before leaving on a ship that took them 21 days to destination - which turned out to be Panama. I asked the Red Cross for $20 to follow him, but they would only give me money to go home. I took the bus to be with him, rented a room in Mineral Wells - above a store - for four dollars a week! Joe was in the hospital with mumps for 2 weeks but was out by Thanksgiving to enjoy that holiday. Whalton, was at Camp Wolters for three months - in 1942 for his basic training. General William Westmoreland tours Dempsey HeliportĬamp Wolters with troop train in distance (WWII)Ĭamp Wolters Rifle Range (12 October, 1942)ĭamage to TH-55A helicopters, April 13, 1967 Location where the Camp HQ was once locatedĬourtesy: Boyce Ditto Public Library, Mineral Wells, Texas. H-23 helicopter on approach to main heliport. Shown on maps of Camp Wolters as "Ranges" A portion of the land was also transferred by the United States government to the state of Texas for development as part of Lake Mineral Wells State Park.qvĪrea just east of the main heliport. Part of the land and facilities became the property of the city and private businessmen ninety acres and thirteen buildings became the Education Center of Weatherford College. In 1975 orders deactivating the base were issued. The base was also the home of the Beach Army Hospital, the Eighty-fourth Military Police Detachment, the 328th United States Army Band, and United States Army Reserve Detachment 20, Sixteenth Weather Squadron. By January 1, 1973, 40,000 students had completed the twenty-week training program. By 1970 Fort Wolters covered 8,500 acres and leased an additional 1,700 to help handle the 1,200 helicopters used at the camp. The Vietnam War increased the need for pilots, and the base became the home for training not just army personnel, but also helicopter pilots for the Marine Corps in 1968 and for the Air Force in 1970. At the time all army rotary-wing aviators received basic and primary flight training there. In June 1963 it was renamed Fort Wolters. In September 1956 the base became the Primary Helicopter Center directed by the United States Army. Special-category army and air force personnel were trained there. At the installation, then named Wolters Air Force Base, was housed the newly formed Aviation Engineer Force. The tensions of the cold war, however, resulted in the reopening of the camp in early 1951, under the authority of the United States Air Force. Local businessmen purchased the land and facilities and converted them to private use. Six months after the end of the war the camp was deactivated. ![]() The camp became an important infantry-replacement training center with a troop capacity that reached a peak of 24,973. Mineral Wells donated fifty acres, leased 2,300 acres, and in World War IIqv provided land to increase the camp's area to 7,500 acres. Wolters,qv commander of the Fifty-sixth Brigade of the National Guard, and designated a summer training site for his units. Fort Wolters, established as Camp Wolters in 1925, is four miles east of Mineral Wells in Parker and Palo Pinto counties. ![]()
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