Fort Hood Communities

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Fort Hood Communities of Coryell County. January 15, 1942. That date carries a weight most Texans don't fully reckon with.

On that day, the U.S. Army established a tank destroyer tactical and firing center near Killeen — covering more than a hundred square miles. They called it Camp Hood.

Later, it would become Fort Hood. And to build it, the government needed land. More than 88,000 acres of it.

Now, the Army doesn't ask politely when the world's on fire. The changes happened in a matter of days and weeks, because the urgent need for military training doesn't wait on paperwork or sentiment. About twenty small communities in Coryell County were taken by the government for the establishment of that facility.

Twenty communities. Many of them had been planted in the early 1850s — before the county itself even existed. Families who had worked that ground for generations watched as homes disappeared.

Churches went quiet and then went away. And the beloved dead — the people buried in those church cemeteries — had to be reburied somewhere else entirely. You think about that for a moment.

You don't just lose your house. You lose where your grandmother rests. Financial difficulties arose from the chaos that followed.

And there was chaos. The marker doesn't dress that up. Much confusion among the citizens of Coryell County, it says, and that's about as understated as Texas gets.

But here's the thing — those people weren't opposed to the government using their land for its purpose. They understood the war. They understood what was at stake.

Camp Hood would go on to train fifty battalions of about a thousand men each for World War II combat. That's fifty thousand soldiers, shaped and hardened on that Coryell County ground. The people who gave up that land knew the stakes.

What they asked for — what they appealed for — was fairness. On February 27, 1942, an article ran in the Gatesville Messenger about committee representatives from the camp site area appealing to elected officials about the land prices. They weren't fighting the mission.

They were asking to be paid reasonable prices so that they might purchase similar homes in other places. That's not resistance. That's dignity.

It was a long and hard recovery for those uprooted. The marker doesn't soften that, and neither will I. But hardship has a funny way of tightening the knots between people.

Because of the common struggles they shared, those community members banded together and became a closer group. Scattered across the map now, farther apart than they ever expected to be, the families and their descendants still maintain connections — through communication, through reunions, through the traditions of generations past. Twenty communities taken in a matter of weeks.

And still, the people who came from them haven't let go of each other. That's not nothing. That's everything.

What the marker says

On January 15, 1942, the U.S. Army established a tank destroyer tactical and firing center near Killeen covering more than 100 square miles. Camp Hood (later Fort Hood) would be used to train fifty battalions of about 1,000 men each for World War II combat. Because of the size of the facility, the army needed to acquire more than 88,000 acres of land. About twenty small communities in Coryell County were taken by the government for the establishment of the facility, later named Fort Hood. Many communities were established in the early 1850s before the county was created. During the time of the property acquisitions there was much confusion among the citizens of Coryell County. Families who had lived on the same land for generations watched as homes and churches were lost and beloved dead were reburied in other cemeteries. Financial difficulties arose because of the chaos that followed. The changes happened in a matter of days and weeks because of the urgent need for military training and response. It was a long and hard recovery for those uprooted. In an article in the Gatesville Messenger on February 27, 1942, the author speaks about committee representatives of the camp site area appealing to elected officials about the land prices. The people affected by Fort Hood did not oppose the government using their land for its purpose, but they did expect to be paid reasonable prices so that they might purchase similar homes in other places. Because of the common hardships, community members banded together and became a closer group. Today, even though they are more scattered geographically, these families and their descendants maintain connections through communication, reunions and the traditions of generations past. (2012)