DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place, right here in Brown County. Now settle in, because this patch of Texas ground carried a whole lot of weight during the Second World War. We're talking about Camp Bowie, a training base so massive it could hold forty-five thousand soldiers at one time.
Forty-five thousand. That's not a camp, friends, that's a city in uniform. It opened its gates in September of 1940 and kept on running all the way to 1946, when the 45th Division was deactivated and the work was finally done.
Six years of turning civilians into fighting men on Texas soil. The camp was home to the 36th Division, known as the Texas division, and it trained a whole roster of other units besides. The Dixie 31st came through here.
So did the 4th Armored and the 13th Armored, the 113th Cavalry, and more. Camp Bowie also served as the Seventh Headquarters of Special Troops, Fourth Army, and General Walter Krueger himself commanded the VIII Corps Area Troops right here on these grounds. The men who ran this place read like a roll call of brass: Colonel K.L.
Berry, General C.V. Birkhead, Colonel F.E. Bonney, Colonel A.G.
Brown, and Colonel K.F. Hanst. Five commanders over the course of that long and serious chapter.
Now, the camp carried a name with some history behind it. It was named for James Bowie, hero of the Alamo siege in 1836. A fighter's name for a fighter's place.
And for six years, that name meant something loud and present right here in Brown County, before the last division stood down and the ground went quiet again.
What the marker says
Huge World War II training base, Camp Bowie was a home of the "Texas" 36th Division and trained many other units, including the "Dixie" 31st, 4th, and 13th Armored; and 113th Cavalry. It was also Seventh Headquarters of Special Troops, Fourth Army. Here, too, Gen. Walter Krueger was Commander of the VIII Corps Area Troops. The camp had a capacity of 45,000. Commanders were Col. K.L. Berry, Gen. C.V. Birkhead, Col. F.E. Bonney, Col. A.G. Brown, and Col. K.F. Hanst. Camp operated Sept. 1940 to 1946, when 45th Div. was deactivated. It was named for James Bowie, hero of the Alamo siege, 1836. (1968)