History of FT. McClellan

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The history of FT. McClellan, AL began in July of 1917-1999. It was located near Anniston, AL, which was the first and only military post in that vicinity. On July 1, 1929 Camp McClellan was formally changed to Fort McClellan, which became a permanent duty assignment for active Army. Fort McClellan was named after Major General George B. McClellan, who was the General in Chief of the Army from 1861-1862. It was the first southern military installation named in honor of a northerner general. McClellan was used as a mobilization camp where soldiers of WWII trained. During WWII, McClellan was considered one of the largest military installations, where roughly half a million troops were trained. From the time that the war ended, up until the day that the based closed, McClellan had an average of 10,000 military personnel on the installation (Transition Force, 2014).
After the conclusion of the war with Japan, a numerous amount of trainees slowly reduced, which caused the post complement to do the same. Following World War I and World War II the Army appropriations budget was cut by two billion dollars. In response to the cut, Fort McClellan was put on inactive status and remained that way regardless of the pressure the politicians of Alabama addressed to Washington. The Congressional delegation of Alabama went as far as to invite Dwight D. Eisenhower, then Chief of Staff of the Army and collectively, they sat down to review the situation. Dwight D. Eisenhower, during his visit, had mentioned that he felt like Fort McClellan was the best among any other military installations, but he was still in favor of the budget cut.
Things quickly turned around in 1950, once Brigadier General Theodore R. Wessels became leader. He was also respon...

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...adiness. As soon as it was final that Fort McClellan was going to close, the military was informed and the civilian employees were forced to look elsewhere for work. Even though several civilians were without jobs, the military contributed by having programs in place to aid displaced employees search for employment. After 81+ years of memories, all the soldiers that had trained at Fort McClellan, Major General Ralph G. Wooten, the Commanding General and the Chemical School Commandant, gave an emotional thanks from the Department of the Army to Fort McClellan and the surrounding communities (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2014).

Works Cited

Transition Force. (2014, March 20). Fort mcclellan. Retrieved from http://www.mcclellan.army.mil
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2014, March 5). Fort mcclellan. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_McClellan

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