History of Fort Pickett
The Army Post
In late 1941, as war drew closer to America’s shores, a team of Army surveyors visited the site of a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp near the small rural town of Blackstone, Virginia. There they found enough land, water and other resources needed to establish a post large enough to simultaneously train more than one infantry division. The site also offered easy railroad access to both mountain and coastal training sites. By December 1941, 45,867 acres of land in Nottoway, Dinwiddie, Lunenburg and Brunswick Counties were acquired and cleared to prepare for construction of the first buildings.Elements of the Virginia National Guard had their first taste of what is now Fort Pickett on Dec. 6-7 when the 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry, camped here on the way back to its home station at Ft. Meade, Md., having completed a series of war games in North Carolina. After the 116th left on Dec. 8, no Virginia Guard commands returned to train at Pickett until 1950, shortly after the beginning of the Korean War.
MG GEORGE E. PICKETT, CSA
The rapid development of Fort Pickett became a top priority after U.S. entry in WW II. Two rail spurs were built to the camp in 1942-1943 to increase logistical efficiency and the rapid movement of troops on and off post. Air transportation to and from Pickett became available with the completion of a four-runway airfield in late 1942. The tower was placed beside the only hangar built on post, and its steel beam frames and cinder block foundation are still visible today. Since each cement runway was 5,269 feet long and 300 feet wide the Blackstone Army Airfield was large enough to allow the safe landing of the Douglas C-47 “Gooney Bird”. Fighter planes could use the runway in an emergency, although none were stationed at the airfield. Aircraft fuel was delivered by rail and contained in fuel trucks, since permanent storage tanks were not constructed until after World War II. The airfield remained virtually unchanged until the 1990’s.
By the end of 1942, more than 1,400 buildings were completed and in use across the post, including approximately 1,000 enlisted barracks and 70 officer’s quarters. Twelve chapels, the post hospital complex (later greatly expanded) and six firehouses were built, along with warehouses, headquarters and administrative buildings. To assure an adequate water supply for the post and its potential 60,000-soldier population, the Army built and maintained its own water pumping, filtration and sewage treatment plants. In the 1980’s the Army transferred control and operation of these facilities to the town of Blackstone.
For recreation, there were four movie theaters (two more were added later), a field house with a gym, several enlisted clubs, a main post exchange and several “satellite” PXs. By war’s end, more than 300 additional buildings were constructed, including female barracks and facilities for two prisoner-of-war camps.
Units and Troops
The first large group of soldiers arrived for training in April 1942. The 79th “Cross of Lorraine” Infantry Division, U.S. Army Reserve, trained for three months before deploying to Camp Blanding, Fla., and later served in Europe, fighting from Normandy into central Germany.While the 79th underwent its training, the first African-American troops arrived at Camp Pickett. Beginning with the organization of the 357th Engineer General Service Regiment (Colored) on June 25, 1942, most of the African-American soldiers serving on the post were assigned to segregated engineer units. As at other Army posts across the nation, these soldiers mainly lived in a separate world from their white counterparts. They had their own barracks, chapels, movie theaters, enlisted clubs and medical clinics, and only certain wards of the hospital were open to them.
Soon after the 79th shipped out, the 3rd “Rock of the Marne” Infantry Division arrived in September 1942, followed by the 3rd” Spearhead” Armored Division and, later, the 45th “Thunderhead” Infantry Division. The 45th was composed of National Guard soldiers from Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, including three of the division’s eight future Medal of Honor recipients and the famous wartime cartoonist Bill Mauldin, creator of the cartoon characters, Willie and Joe. When the 45th departed Pickett, it sailed directly to participate in the invasion of Sicily.
The Pennsylvania National Guard’s 28th “Keystone” Infantry Division replaced the Thunderbirds at Pickett, but only stayed for three months. In September 1943, the 28th departed for deployment to England and later fought in the Normandy campaign and the Battle of the Bulge.
By mid-1943 the need for quality training space forced the Army to “double up” two divisions at Pickett. The 28th briefly shared the post with the 31st “Dixie” Infantry Division, which arrived in August. The 31st was composed of Guard soldiers from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
When the 28th left for England, it was replaced by the 77th “Statue of Liberty” Infantry Division, an Army Reserve command activated in 1942. When both the 31st and 77th left Pickett in March 1944, they were replaced by the last wartime division to be stationed on post, the 78th “Lightning” Infantry Division, an Army Reserve command, which departed for combat in Europe in October.
Camp Pickett also was used to train a variety of smaller units, such as artillery and engineer battalions. In addition, a vast number of new recruits destined as replacements for divisions suffering losses in combat were trained at Pickett. Before and during the early days of the war, new recruits usually received their basic and advanced individual training with the unit in which they were expected to serve. However, once a unit was committed to combat, it was impossible to give basic training to replacements. Training centers like Pickett were set up to prepare the thousands of men who would fill in the “gaps” caused by enemy action.
Life At Camp Pickett
What was life like at Camp Pickett for soldiers stationed here? Among the hot spots were the movie theaters, PX facilities and the field house. Separate clubs for officers, NCOs and lower-rank enlisted men were built where soldiers could listen to music, drink a cold beer and enjoy some “fast food.” Complete meals were served in the officers’ club, and many weekends found local ladies coming to Pickett for dances. Quiet time could be spent at the camp library, perhaps reading the latest copy of the post newspaper, the Camp Pickett News. On Sunday, most of the 12 chapels were filled with worshippers of all faiths.Few passes outside of the Blackstone area were issued to soldiers during World War II. Since the town contained little entertainment to amuse large groups of young men far from home, most soldiers remained on post for their entire stay. For permanent party soldiers, weekend passes to Richmond, Virginia Beach, and Washington, D.C. were granted regularly. No enlisted soldiers were allowed to have personal automobiles due to gas rationing, so travel was either by bus or train.
POW Camps
When the German and Italian armies were defeated in North Africa in mid-1943, more than 250,000 enemy soldiers were captured. Many of these POWs were brought to the United States to perform farm work and other non-war-related jobs as allowed by the Geneva Convention. A total of approximately 6,000 German prisoners were sent to Camp Pickett beginning in January 1944. The Army built two main camps and nine smaller satellite camps in the nearby counties to house the Germans. The main compounds had a perimeter of barbed wire surrounding the barracks and other buildings. The perimeter of Camp Number I still stands on Pickett. Two of its guard towers overlook the enclosure and a six-cell, cement block jail is located just outside the compound. No escapes were recorded.
The prisoners, most of whom were enlisted, were employed in a variety of jobs. The majority of POWs at the main camps cut logs and made pulpwood, while most of those in the smaller, outlying camps performed farm work. About 280 prisoners worked in the post hospital’s wards and kitchen.
U.S. Army Hospital
The hospital ushered in the first large influx of female personnel. While many were nurse officers, others were enlisted members of the Women’s Army Corps. Most performed medical tasks, while others served in administrative or clerical positions. All were volunteers, and every job they did freed a male soldier for combat.
Prior to establishing the expanded hospital, the Army moved the Medical Replacement Training Center from Fort Lee in the summer of 1942. When it closed in September 1943, MRTC had trained an estimated 10,000 medics for overseas duty.
Winding Down Operations
As the war in Europe ended in 1945, and the Allied ring around Japan grew tighter, the training tempo at Camp Pickett started to diminish. With so many soldiers being released from combat in Europe for duty in the Pacific Theater, the need for thousands of new replacements declined, so some of the training areas around the camp closed. After Japan’s surrender in September, the post’s closing seemed to be just a matter of time. All combat training stopped by year’s end, and the only fully staffed operation left on post was the hospital.As 1946 ended, all patients were discharged or transferred to veterans’ hospitals, and the post entered first period in a “caretaker” status. Only a very small staff, mostly civilian government employees, remained to keep the camp ready if needed in a future emergency.
The Korean War
This course of events changed in 1948 as the Cold War with the Soviet Union threatened to heat up due to Berlin Crisis. The Army decided to reorganize the 17th Airborne Division with Camp Pickett as its home station. The 17th had fought in Europe during World War II, but was inactivated in 1945. This unit remained on active duty for one year before being inactivated after a cooling of tensions over Berlin. The 17th was the only major command to be both activated and disbanded at Camp Pickett in its five decades of service.Though the Berlin Crisis ended peacefully and the start of a new decade showed no immediate trouble spots on the horizon, the camp remained open in a limited capacity for training. In February 1950, the 3rd Infantry Division was stationed on post while taking part in an amphibious exercise called Operation PORTEX at Little Creek.
In July the 29th Infantry Division arrived for its first postwar annual training. The main topic of conversation was if and when the “Blue and the Gray” would be activated following President Truman’s decision to commit U.S. forces in response to the North Korean invasion of South Korea that was launched June 25. The 29th was not mobilized, but a number of its soldiers volunteered for active duty and served as replacements.
Aside from reopening much of the post to house and train the 43rd Division, other areas of Pickett also were brought back “on line.” In 1951, the hospital complex was revamped and again served to treat wounded or sick soldiers. This became even more important after the Korean War truce was signed in July 1953, as a sizable number of freed POWs were brought to Pickett for medical and psychological treatment. More than 800 POWs were processed as Pickett became the major East Coast “clearing station” for men returning to health before being discharged.
With the end of fighting in Korea, most of Camp Pickett’s facilities were closed in 1953. Guard and reserve units still came for annual training in the summer, but blocks of barracks and other facilities fell into disrepair as the post was used sparingly during the rest of the year.
The Cold War And Moving Ahead
Although Camp Pickett seemed destined to once again be closed, the demands of the Cold War and the need to train division-sized Reserve Component units in the mid-Atlantic region brought a redefined role for the post. By 1960, portions were being revamped to house battalions coming for a week or two each year to conduct specialized training. This included not only Guard/Reserve commands, but also Navy and Marine Corps personnel. These components still use Pickett’s facilities today under Virginia National Guard control.The predecessor to the Virginia National Guard Maneuver Training Center was organized and stationed at Pickett in 1961. Its primary mission, then as now, was to store and maintain pieces of equipment such as tanks and other armored vehicles that visiting units could use, rather than incurring the high cost of bringing their own machines from home station.
Pickett experienced two significant interralated events in 1974 that marked its future path. The first was its redesignation from “Camp” to “Fort Pickett” as a reflection of its new mission to offer quality training opportunities, not only to Reserve units, but also active duty forces on a yearly basis. The second important event was the completion for the first time since the Korean War, of a new building on post. Building 467 contained space not only to house enlisted personnel, but to serve as a mess facility and administrative area. More significantly, it was built of brick and intended as the first permanent structure in Pickett’s history.
Ten years later, a whole new complex of barracks and support structures was completed. Large enough to house an entire brigade, the complex was dedicated June 8, 1984, in memory of Tech. Sgt. Frank Peregory of the 116th Infantry, 40 years to the day after he earned the Medal of Honor during the D-Day invasion. Other upgrades of facilities included a doubling of the existing telephone system from 2,600 to 5,100 lines in 1991 and renovation and extension of the Blackstone Army Airfield’s runways in 1994 to allow use by C-130 and C-17 transport aircraft. This permitted easy access for airmobile troops and equipment coming to Fort Pickett for training.
In more recent years, other structures were added or converted to meet the post’s changing missions. Among these were a new firehouse and renovations on the remaining NCO Club, making it more of a community center where local town events as well as post functions are held. Good community relations have always been important to the success of Fort Pickett. From its very beginning, the post has dramatically changed the lives of the citizens of Blackstone. It has created a number of good jobs and supported the town in a variety of other ways, from hosting elderly fishing trips at the on-post lakes to Fourth of July celebrations. Boy and Girl Scout organizations also have camped, fished and hiked the nature trails for many years. Currently, many activities attract a large number of local citizens and former staff and personnel who had been stationed there during the war.
While the facilities at Pickett are geared to train military personnel and units, non-military organizations use them too. These include the U.S. Marshal’s Service, FBI, A.T.F., Virginia State Police and local law enforcement agencies.
The decision to inactivate the regular Army garrison at Fort Pickett and turn over operation of the post to the Virginia National Guard was finalized in 1995 and enacted in 1997. Since that time no regular Army personnel have been assigned to Pickett for the first time since January 1942.
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