Camp Toccoa: Difference between revisions
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Clemson rifle range |
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Initially, Camp Toccoa used the Toccoa municipal airport for jump training, but due to a transport accident, it was abandoned for having too short a runway for safe [[C-39]] and [[C-47]] operations, and all further jump training occurred at [[Fort Benning, Georgia]]. |
Initially, Camp Toccoa used the Toccoa municipal airport for jump training, but due to a transport accident, it was abandoned for having too short a runway for safe [[C-39]] and [[C-47]] operations, and all further jump training occurred at [[Fort Benning, Georgia]]. |
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As Camp Toccoa did not have its own rifle range, airborne trainees would march the thirty miles to Clemson Agricultural College, a military school in South Carolina, to practice on the college's shooting range. |
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The most prominent local landmark is [[Currahee Mountain]]. Paratroopers in training ran from the camp up the mountain and back, memorialized in the HBO series, ''[[Band of Brothers]]'', with the shout "three miles up, three miles down." Members of the [[506th Parachute Infantry Regiment]] (PIR), which trained here, refer to themselves as "Currahees". |
The most prominent local landmark is [[Currahee Mountain]]. Paratroopers in training ran from the camp up the mountain and back, memorialized in the HBO series, ''[[Band of Brothers]]'', with the shout "three miles up, three miles down." Members of the [[506th Parachute Infantry Regiment]] (PIR), which trained here, refer to themselves as "Currahees". |
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Revision as of 09:02, 21 July 2005
United States Army paratrooper training camp during World War II five miles west of Toccoa, Georgia.
It was first opened in 1938 as a Georgia National Guard camp named Camp General Robert Toombs after a Confederate Civil War General. In 1942 the U.S. Army took over the site. There were very few buildings or facilities there. These were built as the first paratroopers started to arrive. 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 (the Toccoa Casket Company) to learn to jump at Camp "Tombs", so he persuaded the Department of the Army to change the name to Camp Toccoa.
Initially, Camp Toccoa used the Toccoa municipal airport for jump training, but due to a transport accident, it was abandoned for having too short a runway for safe C-39 and C-47 operations, and all further jump training occurred at Fort Benning, Georgia.
As Camp Toccoa did not have its own rifle range, airborne trainees would march the thirty miles to Clemson Agricultural College, a military school in South Carolina, to practice on the college's shooting range.
The most prominent local landmark is Currahee Mountain. Paratroopers in training ran from the camp up the mountain and back, memorialized in the HBO series, Band of Brothers, with the shout "three miles up, three miles down." Members of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), which trained here, refer to themselves as "Currahees".
The camp closed at the war's end. Today the site has several memorials to the men who trained there. The twisting trail up Currahee is now named for Colonel Sink. The only remaining building from the camp is the mess hall. An industrial complex occupies part of the grounds.
Units trained at Toccoa
- 506th PIR: attached to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division
- 501st PIR: attached to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division
- 511th PIR: attached to the U.S. 11th Airborne Division
- 517th PIR: attached to the U.S. 17th Airborne Division and U.S. 13th Airborne Division
- 457th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion: attached to the U.S. 11th Airborne Division