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History of Ft. Carson part II
Fort Carson History
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Please check out the part 1 post if you haven’t read: An early history of Ft. Carson
Part II starts in the early 1960’s and will go through 2004. I’ll deal with Ft. Carson today in another article that will also give some great websites if you’re being transferred here in the near future.
look for the statue of Kit Carson also located by the main gate
During the early 1960’s, Ft. Carson was home to only one major unit and was on McNamara’s list of potential base closings. This was not known at the time but the Cuban Missile Crisis and Berlin blockade was enough for the Army to reactivate two more divisions, including the 5th Infantry which formally reactivated in early 1962. The 5th was the Army’s first mechanized Infantry division to be organized. The problem was the need for land. Tanks need lots of room to roam and so in 1965, the base acquired almost 25,000 acres of state land (remember it was originally leased in 1942). They traded the land with some federal land owned at the time close to Lowry near Denver. Also, in 1965 and 1966 they purchased almost 79,000 acres south of the original base for around $3.5 million. All this brought Ft. Carson up to its current size of 138,523 acres, though Ft. Carson officials and the Army have recently been trying to acquire more land which has been met with much resistance.
With the onset of the Vietnam War, Ft. Carson became a training post once again for those headed to overseas. In 1968, Ft. Carson sent almost 14,000 troops to Vietnam. In subsequent years, they sent 9,000 (1967) and1968 saw the deployment of 6,000 additional troops. In all, 61 units would be activated at Ft. Carson. The largest unit transferred, was the brigade known as Task Force Diamond which was airlifted directly to Da Nang in 1968, the second largest airlift in history. The military strength grew from 9600 in 1965 to almost 25,000 in 1967. This created an economic boom for the city of Colorado Springs. However, due to the anti-war protests it also created very poor relations between the city and Ft. Carson.
With the end of the war, cut-backs started. The 4th Infantry Division was relocated to Ft. Carson which was good news for the area, as it meant the base would remain open. At the time, Ft. Carson was responsible for about $200 million to the local economy.
Beginning in 1971, Ft. Carson became a test site for the all-volunteer Army. It started as an 18 month program to create an environment able to handle a volunteer rather than a draft Army. Ft. Carson was given money to support the program which was used to increase recruitment’s and retain soldiers by increasing their quality of life. Such things as coffee bars, better living conditions, mobile classrooms, outdoor recreation, areas ski trips, cash awards for achievement and an off-post hotel were all started during this time. Their was also a fine arts program and increased pay. Training was upgraded and made more relevant to their jobs. The post newspaper, The Mountaineer was augmented by other ways of communicating including a Spanish newspaper. The test ended in 1972. Many of the projects have been discarded, but may others continue today.
The economic impact from Ft. Carson on the local economy cannot be understated. In 1973, over $340 million was a direct result of the base and their 20,000 troops. The post also employed almost 3000 civilians. With the help of Colorado congressional and senate leaders (along with the Army relocating The 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division after their Iraqi tour in 2004) the base was saved from closure in 2005 when the BRAC announced many base closures around the world.
Look for the current history of Ft. Carson and some helpful info for the troops relocated here in 2009 in an upcoming article.
We would love to hear some of your stories while stationed at either Camp or Ft. Carson. Please feel free to write us your stories as we’d love to share them.
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- An early history of Ft. Carson
If you enjoyed reading this article, why not Kathy (719-287-1049) KTorline@msn.com
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