Fort McCoy, Wis., was established in 1909. Here is a look back at some installation history from April 2020 and back.
75 Years Ago — April 1945
The first mother-daughter combination to take the Army Nurse Corps training program at Camp McCoy — Lts. Audrey C. and Mary Jane Rawley — dedicated their service to the memory of their late husband and father, Dr. Charles Rawley, who died March 19, 1945.
Charles Rawley served as a medical officer in World War I. The Rawleys, natives of Galatia, Ill., are veteran nurses. Audrey Rawley, the mother, had 17 years of experience, having last served at Union Hospital in West Frankfurt, Ill., while Mary Jane Rawley, the daughter, graduated from St. John’s Hospital, Springfield, Ill., more than a year beforehand.
The daughter had longer Army service, having enlisted March 29, while the mother joined April 12. They hoped to serve together overseas. Before joining the service, Audrey Rawley worked as a trachoma control specialist. She also worked at the Dixon, Ill., State Hospital.
The mother-daughter team attended many of the same classes, lived in the same quarters, and admitted they liked Army life.
35 Years Ago — April 12, 1985
Three Fort McCoy employees received certificates and cash awards in recognition of having their suggestion implemented at the Department of the Army level. David Robinson, Roger Jerome, and Carl Dvorak of Fort McCoy's Training and Audiovisual Support Center (TASC) Devices Shop accepted the awards from Col. Bill Sorenson, garrison commander.
After thorough evaluation, the suggestion, which outlined the process for producing an inert 165mm plastic training round for the M-728 Combat Engineer Vehicle (CEV), was found to have Army-wide application. Before the plastic round was developed, training in loading the main gun of the CEV could only be accomplished on training ranges using live ammunition.
Range availability further limited the number of times a crew could conduct the training. The plastic round provided the potential to practice loading the main gun without leaving the motor pool.
To reach the DA level, the suggestion first had to be approved at the Fort McCoy and Forces Command levels. Extensive testing was done accounting in part for the nearly three years that have elapsed since the original suggestion was submitted.
The concept for the suggestion originated when a soldier expressed the need for a device of this type and wondered if TASC could help, Robinson said. After kicking some ideas around, the three men came up with a plan. It took two tries to get the final product. The recipe? Take a salvaged 105mm shell, fill it with a mixture of lead and cement and encase it in plastic so it matches the dimensions and weight of a live round, making it possible for the device to be chambered.
30 Years Ago — April 22, 1990
Silver Creek and Clear Creek on Fort McCoy were granted State Natural Area status on Earth Day, April 22, 1990, and are unique additions to the Natural Area program, said Paul Matthiae, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) State Natural Area Section chief.
Most of the Natural Area sites in this part of the state have tended to be land or aquatic areas, such as wetlands, Matthiae said. These two creeks, in an almost untouched condition for the past 100 years, are relatively rare in the southwestern Wisconsin area. The Silver Creek Natural Area, located in the southeast corner of McCoy, measures about 2,500 meters long with an average width of 200-250 meters and 80 totals acres. The Clear Creek Natural Area, in the northeast corner of the post, is about 2,000 meters long with a varying width averaging about 200 meters and covers 55 acres.
Both creeks have minimal soil erosion and siltation impact, and natural banks exist on both creeks. A verbal agreement was reached to designate the two creeks as State Natural Areas ─ the third and fourth such areas in Monroe County.
10 Years Ago — April 2010
The sounds of rockets and engines reverberated in the early morning hours, but the noise was not echoing off the Oklahoma Mountain ranges as normal.
Instead, the echoes rang over the Wisconsin countryside. The 2nd Battalion, 18th Field Artillery Regiment (2-18 FAR) packed all of its Soldiers and equipment for a deployment exercise to Fort McCoy where they conducted Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) fire missions, deployment operations and ran the 15th Transportation Company through a mission readiness exercise in preparation for its deployment.
Fort McCoy’s 46,000 acres of training areas were home to more than 450 “Mission Ready” Soldiers and required the two units to operate strictly as if they were deployed and self-sufficient.
But that was not the only reason for the unit to make the 960-mile journey to the northern United States.
“What we can do at Fort McCoy that can’t be done at a lot of places is actually exercise MLRS tactics, where our launchers can hide in the trees, receive a fire mission and then roll out into this big wide open area and shoot rounds,” said Lt. Col. Stephen Wertz, 2-18 FAR commander. “I like coming here, and I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t think it was going to be good. We like the facilities here.”
During the monthlong exercise, the battalion conducted its MLRS missions to maintain vital skills.
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