Henderson history: Camp Breckinridge reopened for the second time in 1948
The rebirth of Camp Breckinridge occurred in August 1948, about the same time the nation’s second peacetime draft – the one that lasted until 1973 – was instituted.
The Gleaner of Aug. 11, 1948, reported a large portion of the first group of trainees – all men who had enlisted – would start arriving at the camp about Aug. 20. Draftees would not start arriving until about Oct. 4. More about that in a moment; first, a little background information about the camp.
Camp Breckinridge had a huge economic and social impact on the Tri-County area. Round-the-clock construction on approximately 36,000 acres of land began in February 1942. The camp was officially activated July 1, 1942, when the first troops arrived, although it wasn’t until Sept. 15 that 15,000 troops of the 98th Infantry Division began moving in.
The camp reached its peak population of about 45,000 in 1944, which was the equivalent of a major Kentucky city at that time.
On Jan. 24, 1946, The Gleaner carried confirmation that Camp Breckinridge would be placed on standby basis Feb. 5. That was a major economic blow to landlords and the owners of restaurants, taverns, and nightclubs.
But then came the first stirrings of the Cold War in the Berlin airlift and wars of Communist aggression in places like Greece and China, which prompted the camp’s reopening in 1948.
At the risk of messing up my chronology, here’s a thumbnail history of the camp, focusing on the 1948-49 period:
There were nearly 3,000 soldiers at the camp by August 1948 and more than 7,500 by the end of September, according to the Union County Advocate of Sept. 30. By Nov. 11 there were 15,189 soldiers at the camp, the bulk of them from the 101st Airborne. The Advocate of Feb. 10, 1949, said there were 19,786 at the camp, but that there were rumors the camp would be mothballed. The Advocate of April 14, 1949, said the camp’s population was down to 6,354 and by June 2, 1949, it was less than 500.
The last two graduation ceremonies for the 101st Airborne were held April 15; the unit trained more than 27,000 men at the camp during 1948-49. Manpower at the camp peaked at 20,006 in January of 1949. As 1949 progressed, however, the camp was winding down; its official date of being placed on stand-by was June 30.
But the outbreak of hostilities on the Korean peninsula in mid-1950 caused the camp to again be activated. During the Korean War the camp housed between 16,000 and 18,000 troops and employed about 2,000 civilian workers.
With the end of that war, however, the camp was placed on stand-by basis January 1, 1954.
Camp Breckinridge would last nearly another decade, but at a much lower level of intensity. In 1955 it was partially reactivated to train reservists. In the summer of 1962, the last 4,000 troops were trained there. On Nov. 26, 1962, it was declared surplus property. Most of the land was sold beginning in 1965.
Back to my chronology of 1948-49.
During World War II housing had been a major headache for the camp, and special regulations had to be imposed to prevent rent gouging. According to The Gleaner of Aug. 13, 1948. Maj. Gen. William R. Schmidt, camp commandant and head of the 101st Airborne, named Capt. Walter Thompson as the Army’s housing coordinator for the Evansville-Henderson-Morganfield area. Owners of rental property were urged to contact Thompson and provide details of the property they had to offer.
The Gleaner of Aug. 29 warned residents that the camp’s firing range was once again reopening as of Sept. 1.
“Everyone is asked to obey the warning signs along the highway in the range area and to stay out of the off-limit areas.”
All hunting and fishing permits on the military reservation “have been cancelled because of the danger involved at this time.”
By the end of September, the number of men at the camp had strained local telephone service, according to The Gleaner of Sept. 24.
“Our organization is just like all the others who had to face a problem with the reactivation of Camp Breckinridge,” said C.D. McIntosh, group manager for the Southern Bell Telephone Co. The problem, he said, was a combination of faulty equipment and inexperienced operators.
“Operators at the Morganfield office are swamped with local and long-distance calls, which have more than doubled within the past few weeks,” the story said.
“Within a few weeks, it is hoped, service in Morganfield and vicinity will be greatly improved, and we urge the public to be as patient as possible with us and our employees,” McIntosh said.
Let’s now turn our focus to the draft, which began Aug. 30 with registration of men 18 through 25. About 200,000 were expected to register in Kentucky of the approximately 9.5 million nationwide. Registration, however, merely provided a pool of available manpower.
Henderson County apparently had a little trouble getting men to serve on the local draft board. The Gleaner of Aug. 12 reported Solon Russell, state director of Selective Service, had recommended to Gov. Earle C. Clements that Frank G. Schmitt, Solomon O. Heilbronner and Hecht Lackey be appointed.
Heilbronner said in that story he was not going to serve, and the other two men also sounded lukewarm about the idea. The Aug. 25 Gleaner said the draft board positions remained unfilled.
J.T. Armstrong, Arthur Davis and Alfred Kraver were appointed, according to The Gleaner of Oct. 4, but Kraver died at the hospital only days after his appointment. Sam Holder, local commander of the VFW, was named as a replacement, but meanwhile Armstrong and Davis also quit, according to The Gleaner of Oct. 13. Replacements were Edwin Biggs Jr. and Dan Lloyd, according to the Dec. 2 Gleaner.
No local men had yet been drafted through the end of 1948; the local draft board’s quotas had been cancelled because of the lack of a board. The Gleaner of Jan. 29, 1949, said the first eight local draftees were being sent to Owensboro for physical examinations.
Local registration for the draft, however, went much more smoothly. The Gleaner of Aug. 29, 1948, noted it would begin the next day for men born Aug. 30, 1922.
“Most of ‘em will have registered before, during and after the war. And from the way Uncle Sam talks, if you served any length of time during the Second World War, you need not worry about being called into active service this time. And if you’ve married, they say you won’t have to go.”
The Gleaner of Aug. 31 noted James “Snoz” Davis – who was both married and a veteran -- was the first local man to register, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who remembers him. The first non-veteran to register was Charles Madden.
100 YEARS AGO
The Gleaner of Aug. 12, 1923, carried a large group of advertisements for 18 new duplexes that had been built at Mill and Powell streets for the Consolidated Textile Corp. by architect and contractor J. Alves Clore.
“The new cotton mill houses are equipped with modern plumbing and bathrooms,” said the advertisement of plumber H.A. Laswell. “This modern equipment will afford the tenants of these houses more real home comfort than anything that could have been placed in the home.”
50 YEARS AGO
Gov. Wendell Ford and the president of Firestone Steel Products announced the company would build a $13 million plant in Henderson, which would employ up to 600 people, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 7, 1973.
As part of the process, Henderson Fiscal Court unanimously approved the issuance of $1 million in industrial revenue bonds, which would save the company about $24,500 annually in taxes.
The plant is now known as Accuride Corp.
25 YEARS AGO
A special committee set up about a year earlier by the Henderson City-County Planning Commission to study the need for a new sign ordinance made its initial report, according to The Gleaner of Aug. 9, 1998, and “a lot of chins are going to hit the floor” when people realized what was in the model ordinance being considered, said citizen committee member Denny Branson.
The sign ordinance at that time had been in effect two decades and was only three pages long; the model ordinance drafted by the American Planning Association was 20 pages. Another big difference was that the old ordinance was one-size-fits-all – it did not speak to permitted sign size – while size in the model was based on zoning.
The planning commission – and later the Henderson City Commission – wrangled with the sign ordinance for the next year. Temporary signs – such as political signs – were the main point of contention.
In the end, according to The Gleaner of Sept. 15, 1999, the city commission decided to leave political signs unregulated.
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com on Twitter at @BoyettFrank and on Threads at @frankalanks.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Henderson history: Camp Breckinridge reopened for second time in 1948
