Camp Wolters

Fort Wolters

A site dedicated to telling the history of one of the most important bases in the history of our country.

The old base is slowly moldering away, it is sad, but I guess time has that effect on everything. I originally started the site because I felt Fort Wolters' place in history needed to be preserved. During WWII over 200,000 Infantry trainees cycled through there, and when it was re-opened as the Army's Primary Helicopter School over 40,000 student pilots graduated - most of them destined for the war in Vietnam. Four decades have past since I was first stationed at Wolters, now the base has a sad, evocative air about it. Whenever I go back to visit the old base my mind slides back to when it reverberated with the activity of hundreds of choppers launching and landing during the day. During my visits, I also think of my departed friends, and the other ex-Wolterites who also died in WWII or Vietnam. The base may be moldering and the facilities becoming derelict, but they are still a memorial to the spirit of the fighting men who spent part of their youth in this special part of central Texas......

Capsule History of Fort Wolters:

1921   56th Cavalry Brigade of the Texas National Guard organized.
1925   Grant for construction of Texas National Guard training camp given to Brigadier General Jacob F. Wolters.
1940   October 13 - Announcement made that Mineral Wells selected for location of Infantry Replacement Training Center.
1940   November 12 - Construction of training center begun.
1941   March 22 - Camp Wolters officially turned over to the Army.
1941   April 5 - Brigadier General William H. Simpson assumed command.
1946   January 19 - Infantry Replacement Center inactivated.
1951   February - Camp Wolters reactivated and re-designated Wolters Air Force Base.
1956   July 1 - Camp Wolters reverted to Army control with mission to train helicopter pilots.
1956   September 26 - U.S. Army Primary Helicopter School activated.
1957   April 27 - First class graduated from U.S. Army Primary Helicopter School.
1963   June 1 - Camp Wolters re-designated Fort Wolters, a permanent military installation.
1966   March - Post was designated U.S. Army Primary Helicopter Center.
1973   The helicopter school transferred to U.S. Army Aviation School at Fort Rucker, Alabama.

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Send questions or comments to: fortwoltersmail@gmail.com