Installation workforce members make special visit to Fort McCoy Commemorative Area during commander’s quarterly town hall meeting

Fort McCoy Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Messenger held a quarterly town hall meeting for the garrison workforce April 25 and as part of that meeting, Messenger asked the workforce members to take a walk-through of Fort McCoy’s historic Commemorative Area.

The 900 block of Fort McCoy and the 11-acre area surrounding it are at the hub of the fort’s history-preservation efforts and is called the Commemorative Area. The Commemorative Area consists of five World War II-era buildings set aside to help tell Fort McCoy's unique story.

These facilities are representative of the types found in the cantonment area when it was constructed in 1942. Three of the buildings — an administrative facility, a dining facility, and a barracks — are set up to depict Soldier life during the 1940s. Display items include a World War II chapel, bunk beds, footlockers, mannequins, and potbelly stoves.

Another building highlights four different modern military training venues, and a separate facility shows various training aids. The area also has the Equipment Park. Veterans Memorial Plaza is a tribute to all of the men and women who have served the nation during each era of Fort McCoy’s history.

In doing the Commemorative Area walk-through, it was a first for the town-hall meetings and it included hundreds of workforce members. They went through three of the historical buildings, saw Equipment Park, and made their final stop at Veterans Memorial Plaza.

Messenger said he took the meeting attendees through the Commemorative Area to remind them of Fort McCoy's history and the Army's history and heritage.

“You know the history of Fort McCoy,” Messenger said in front of Veterans Memorial Plaza. “It started in 1909 when Robert Bruce McCoy started buying up land. … There’s 100-plus years of history here at Fort McCoy that you just all walked through. … It’s about looking beyond just today and thinking about the future and how do we posture for years to come. … You are all the present of Fort McCoy. You are making the next round of history.

“Every time you go out … you are writing the future,” Messenger said. “Some day, in these buildings … it’s going to be … dedicated to what you did here.”

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 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. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”