Camp Livingston

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Camp Livingston was a U.S. Army military camp during World War II located on the Rapides Parish and Grant Parish line in north Louisiana. north of Pineville, Louisiana.

Camp Livingston was open from 1940-1945 and was first known as Camp Tioga. It was renamed Camp Livingston in honor of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase. It was home to the 28th Infantry Division, 32th Infantry Division, 38th Infantry Division, 86th Infantry Division, 327th Military Police Escort Guard, 93rd Engineer General Service Regiment, 7th Transportation Battalion 240th Quartermaster Battalion,846th Tank Destroyer Battalion, 46th Field Artillery Brigade, 350th Field Artillery Group, 351th Field Artillery Group, 353th Field Artillery Group ,1692nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 1693rd, Engineer Combat Battalion,1694th Engineer Combat Battalions ,527th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion, and others during the war. In 1941 there was a Aviation Squadron of 250 African American men in the Army Air Corps performing service function

Camp Livingston was designated as an infantry replacement training center, as well as a garrison for these infantry divisions. The 38th Division was known as the "Avengers of Bataan" and the 86th Division was the first American unit to cross the Danube River into Germany. Over 500,000 troops trained on the 47,000-acre base during the war. On some old concrete walls in the site, beautiful artwork and graffiti has been discovered and is thought to have been drawn by Italian POWs.

In 1941, prior to the United States declaring war, the camp was part of the Louisiana Maneuvers, a 400,000 man training exercise involving two imaginary countries fighting each other. The two armies faced each other across the Red River, over 3,400 square miles of land, including part of East Texas.

During World War II, thousands of Japanese, German and Italian prisoners of war were kept in internment camps at Camp Livingston and Camp Claiborne. In 1942, the first Japanese POW to arrive at Camp Livingston was one who was captured at Pearl Harbor, the survivor of the three-man crew of a mini-submarine which attacked the American fleet on Dec. 7, 1941. The internees at the camps were used to supply logging and farm labor in the area.

Camp Livingston was deactivated in late 1945 and is now part of the Kisatchie National Forest.

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[edit] Today

The U.S. Forest Service manages the property where the camp once was, most all of the concrete streets can still be seen and some driven down. Footings from many buildings can be seen as well as parking lots and the camp swimming pool. The USFS also maintains Little Creek and Hickman Trail, a multi use trail through the area.