Camp Patrick Henry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Camp Patrick Henry is an abandoned U.S. Army base upon more than half of which sits Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport in Newport News, Virginia.
[edit] History
The base served primarily as a troop training center and staging ground during World War II. The camp was founded in late 1942 and was a 1700-acre complex, built in largely virgin forest. Hundreds of tar-papered covered wooden barracks were built, symmetrically laid out around huge consolidated mess halls, each the hub of what was known as a 'regimental area.'[1]
Nearly three quarters of a million men and women passed through Camp Patrick Henry during 1943-44, most of them bound for deployment in the Western Europe before boarding transport ships at the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation. These included American troops of every branch of the military service, troops of other Allied armies, and civilians bound for special missions overseas. By January 31, 1946, the total number of personnel to pass through the camp was 1,412,107.[2] In the later stages of the war, the camp served as a demobilization point for many soldiers returning home.
Although most of the military personnel processed through the Camp during the war were replacements, many noteworthy units were also staged. Full divisions processed in 1943 included the 45th ("Thunderbird") Infantry, which left "combat loaded" for the invasion of Sicily, the 85th ("Custer") , and the 88th ("Blue Devil"). During 1944 the camp handled the 31st ("Dixie,'), the 9lst ("Powder River"), 92nd ("Buffalo"), and the 2nd Cavalry Division.
Camp Patrick Henry also served as a prisoner of war camp, housing over 5,000 German and prisoners of war between 1944 and 1945.[3] The prisoners were assigned to alleviate the critical shortage of manpower in the area within the limits of the Geneva Convention. The first German prisoners of war to permanently assigned to the Port of Hampton Roads were members of the Afrika Korps who had been captured in the early part of 1943 in North Africa..[4] A Prisoner-of-War Canteen was established within the compound where the prisoners, within existing regulations, could make limited purchases.
After the war, the camp was deactivated and about 925 acres were ceded to the Peninsula Airport Commission, which had plans to build a regional airport on the site. Patrick Henry Field, which later became Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport opened in 1949 and now sits on top of more than half of the former base. The U.S. Army continued to operate a Nike Missile site, designated N-85, on the complex until the late 1960s, when the base was shut down permanently.
[edit] Abandoned Site
The property currently belongs to the City of Newport News.[5] The property has sat unused since the 1970s and has been completely overgrown by trees, now resembling an ordinary forest. Little remains of the base apart from a vast grid of ruined tarmac roads, concrete building foundations, two enormous concrete water tanks, various scattered wreckage, and the Nike radar site. The radar site, with its four tall platform towers, is intact but deteriorating and badly overgrown.
 Camp Patrick Henry - 2007 |
