This Month in Fort McCoy History — April 2023

Fort McCoy, Wis., was established in 1909. Here is a look back at some installation history from April 2023 and back.

80 Years Ago — April 1943

FROM THE APRIL 24, 1943, EDITION OF THE REAL MCCOY: New Construction Program Started at Post Hospital — Camp McCoy’s hospital area will be enlarged by 15 buildings under a construction program to be completed by Aug. 15. Conversion of additional existing buildings is also underway.

Ward buildings, nurses’ quarters, storehouses, an eye-ear-nose-throat clinic, and an enlarged pharmacy and laboratory are included in the program which was authorized March 1. Construction is proceeding on schedule, according to Major Starbuck, Area Engineer. Ten new ward buildings of different types will be built in the hospital area, with four existing buildings converted to wards.

One existing building is to be converted to the eye-ear-nose-throat clinic. This clinic will be removed from its present location to permit enlargement of the pharmacy and laboratory in the building all three now occupy. A laboratory in the prison stockade is also included in the new building program.

10 Years Ago — April 2013

FROM THE APRIL 12, 2013 EDITION OF THE REAL MCCOY: Engineer unit conducts pre-mobilization training at Fort McCoy (Story by Rob Schuette) — Engineers preparing to deploy spent nearly three weeks at Fort McCoy using the installation’s tactical facilities and training ranges to hone their Soldier skills.

First Lt. Zachary Holm, a platoon leader for the 372nd Engineer Company, an Army Reserve

unit from Pewaukee, Wis., said the unit conducted training at Fort McCoy because it was the nearest Army installation that had everything it needed to conduct pre-mobilization training.

Unit members will complete their mobilization training at Fort Bliss, Texas, later (in 2013) before deploying to support Operation Enduring Freedom.

“We are firing all the weapons — crew and individual — in our modified table of organization

and equipment and developing a team and unit cohesion as we prepare for mobilization,”

Holm said. “The training is geared toward accomplishing Soldier warrior tasks.”

The training includes weapons familiarization and qualification with pistols, machine guns, and rifles, such as the M4. Holm said Soldiers also conducted hand-grenade and anti-tank training tasks.

Soldiers lived at a forward operating base (FOB) to prepare for that aspect of the mission, he said. Entry-control point and guard duty training also was conducted.

Capt. Andrew Reichert, company commander, said the experience of living in a FOB at Fort McCoy helped prepare unit members for the environment the unit will encounter during deployment. The unit conducts vertical operations, such as constructing buildings.

Staff¬ Sgt. Hector Claudio, a squad leader with the 1st platoon of the 372nd, said the training experience at Fort McCoy will help unit members prepare for their overseas mission.

“The training will help ensure everybody feels comfortable doing what we do,” Claudio said. “We’ll go through every piece of equipment and ensure they know everything by heart so they can do everything needed to accomplish the mission by reflex.”

5 Years Ago — April 2018

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS ON NEW DINING FACILITY IN FORT MCCOY’S CANTONMENT AREA (Story by Scott T. Sturkol): Construction on a new $13.5 million, 1,428-person annual training/mobilization dining facility began in the 1800-block at Fort McCoy in April 2018.

Workers with contractor L.S. Black Constructors of St. Paul, Minn., have already broken ground and have infrastructure work started, said Nathan Butts, contract oversight representative with the Fort McCoy Project Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“As of early May, they’ve put in some of the building footings and concrete foundation walls,” Butts said. “They also have completed some work for the utilities for the structure.”

Though the contract was awarded in November 2017, the contractor wasn’t able to get to work until winter finally ended, Butts said.

“They’re working hard on the project now,” he said. “The project completion date is set for October 2019.”

According to the contract scope of work, the new facility will be built with food preparation and cooking areas; an entrance/control area; and serving, dining, dishwashing, administration, and locker areas. It will also have a state-of-the-art waste-disposal system, a receiving and loading dock, cold and dry storage, and more.

Butts said building a dining facility is different than building other types of facilities and generally takes longer. “These facilities require lots of specialty equipment, which means additional time is needed to build the connections and lines for that equipment into the infrastructure,” he said.

Fort McCoy Food Service Manager Andy Pisney of the Logistics Readiness Center Supply and Services Division said the new dining facility is much needed and will increase food-service capabilities. Pisney’s office oversees the food-service contract for Fort McCoy dining facilities.

“When this is done, it will be more of a unit-operated dining facility,” Pisney said. “It will really work well for those larger units who currently might sign out two or three of our World War II-era facilities to feed their troops. Now they’ll only have to sign out one facility.”

The new facility is being built on several acres of land. It will have a large parking lot and plenty of space for customers.

Pisney said this facility will be the fifth brick-and-mortar dining facility on post.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.

(Article prepared by the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.)