www.itoccoa.com
History and Heritage
Camp Toccoa
 |
| Camp Toccoa |
Currahee Mountain was selected as the site for the first Parachute Infantry Training Center.
The Camp Toccoa location was first established in 1938 as a training camp for the Georgia National Guard. It was named Camp General Robert Toombs in honor of the Confederate general from the War between the States. It was just a wilderness camp with no facilities until the War Department chose the location for a paratrooper basic training site shortly after WWII was declared.
Cadre personnel arrived at Toccoa June 1942 for the purposes of organizing and training paratroopers at Camp General Robert Toombs. The story goes that Colonel Robert F. Sink, 506th Regimental Commander, thought that it was bad psychology to have young men arrive at Toccoa, travel Route 13 past a casket factory to learn to jump at Camp "Tombs", so he persuaded the Department of the Army to change the name to Camp Toccoa.
Original plans were for a camp that would accommodate 20,000 or more men. Two regiments with their supporting units were the maximum there at any one time, but this only occurred when the training of one regiment overlapped the training of the previous regiment. The four regiments organized at Camp Toccoa were the 506th, 501st, 511th, and 517th in that order.
As a Georgia National Guard summer wilderness camp, the area had no barracks, so tents were used from the beginning. This area was originally designated as W Company (for "washed out"). If someone could not make the 3-mile run up Currahee Mountain, they were sent to W Company and were gone from Camp Toccoa by the end of the next day.
This motley array of seive-like tents was also used to house the new men who had yet to pass their physical exam. Cow Company was an unforgettable experience. Running water was available in every tent from the little streams that always ran through them. The beds would settle in the mud, and soon men would be sleeping at ground level with the water running by their ears!
The first barracks were small tar-papered buildings from a Franklin County CCC camp, which were dismantled, hauled to Camp Toombs, and reassembled.
Source: 506th Airborne Infantry Regiment. Camp Toccoa, Georgia, 1942.
The Camp Toccoa location was first established in 1938 as a training camp for the Georgia National Guard. It was named Camp General Robert Toombs in honor of the Confederate general from the War between the States. It was just a wilderness camp with no facilities until the War Department chose the location for a paratrooper basic training site shortly after WWII was declared.
Cadre personnel arrived at Toccoa June 1942 for the purposes of organizing and training paratroopers at Camp General Robert Toombs. The story goes that Colonel Robert F. Sink, 506th Regimental Commander, thought that it was bad psychology to have young men arrive at Toccoa, travel Route 13 past a casket factory to learn to jump at Camp "Tombs", so he persuaded the Department of the Army to change the name to Camp Toccoa.
Original plans were for a camp that would accommodate 20,000 or more men. Two regiments with their supporting units were the maximum there at any one time, but this only occurred when the training of one regiment overlapped the training of the previous regiment. The four regiments organized at Camp Toccoa were the 506th, 501st, 511th, and 517th in that order.
As a Georgia National Guard summer wilderness camp, the area had no barracks, so tents were used from the beginning. This area was originally designated as W Company (for "washed out"). If someone could not make the 3-mile run up Currahee Mountain, they were sent to W Company and were gone from Camp Toccoa by the end of the next day.
This motley array of seive-like tents was also used to house the new men who had yet to pass their physical exam. Cow Company was an unforgettable experience. Running water was available in every tent from the little streams that always ran through them. The beds would settle in the mud, and soon men would be sleeping at ground level with the water running by their ears!
The first barracks were small tar-papered buildings from a Franklin County CCC camp, which were dismantled, hauled to Camp Toombs, and reassembled.
Source: 506th Airborne Infantry Regiment. Camp Toccoa, Georgia, 1942.
Copyright ©2012 iToccoa, iTerion Steward. All rights reserved.
To request permission to use this article in your publication please Contact Us.
All use, including that categorized as "Fair Use" should include ouas r Copyright and a link to the original article on this site. Thank you.