New construction continues to transform Fort McCoy for future operations, support

For the past decade at Fort McCoy, new construction has included new dining facilities, state-of-the-art barracks, a brigade headquarters building, and more.

In that decade, too, Fort McCoy has rekindled its Mobilization Force Generation Installation (MFGI) mission. In recent years as part of other training, a number of Army units have completed their MFGI training at McCoy.

Historically speaking, Fort McCoy has a history of supporting mobilization in multiple conflicts. The installation supported mobilization during World War II from 1942-45, the Korean War from 1950-52, Operation Desert Shield/Storm from 1990-91, and for operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom from 2003-11. During the 2003-11 mobilization mission, more than 140,000 troops with more than 2,600 units mobilized at Fort McCoy.

In addition to that mission, Fort McCoy has also been supporting training for the Army’s reserve-component forces with Army National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers training at McCoy every year in the thousands.

And if Fort McCoy is to maintain its capabilities to support a full range of training support, then upgrades are needed for feeding troops, training them academically and physically, and more, said Master Planner Brian Harrie with the Directorate of Public Works in past news articles.

Four new 20,000-square-foot brigade headquarters buildings, two 60-room officer quarters, and four new 60,000-square-foot barracks are the latest in the planned transformation of Fort McCoy’s 1600 block for the future, Harrie said previously.

“The 1600 block (at Fort McCoy) will be completely transformed when all of this construction is completed years from now,” Harrie said in 2020. “The 1600 block is a great location for this transformation, too, because it places these facilities for transient training troops near the post’s service-related facilities, such as the commissary, Exchange, and McCoy’s Community Center.”

The 1600 block is part of campus plan, Harrie said, and it reimagines this century-old Army installation in the best ways possible to support the warfighter.

And before the current construction in McCoy’s 1600 block, several new dining facilities were completed across the installation with the idea these new facilities will complement the current new construction as well as expand feeding capacity of transient training troops going to the post for MFGI operations, exercises, or annual training.

There was facility construction in the 1800 block for the new $13.5 million, 1,428-person annual training/mobilization dining facility that began in May 2018 and ended in 2019, said Nathan Butts, contract oversight representative with the Fort McCoy Project Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

There also was the construction of the dining facility in the 2400 block, also a new 1,428-person annual training/mobilization dining facility, that began in July 2018 and finished in 2019, too. The Louisville, Ky., office of USACE awarded a $12.3 million contract for the construction of that facility, Butts said. Other dining facilities include one in the 1600 block and one in the Fort McCoy Noncommissioned Officer Academy complex.

All the projects are part of the Fort McCoy Master Plan, Harrie said in 2019, that looks at continuously upgrading the installation’s infrastructure.

Other projects also have been done to upgrade McCoy, too, such as new simulations training buildings in the installation’s 200 block as well as a new shipping and receiving facility near one of the installation’s gates.

Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Director Liane Haun discussed how historic all the new construction is during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the first new barracks completion in May 2022. Haun said at the time the new barracks was only the second brick-and-mortar barracks built on post since 1942.

“Today is another historic moment at Fort McCoy as we assemble to cut the ribbon on the second permanent transient training barracks building at Fort McCoy since the Fort McCoy (cantonment area) was constructed in 1942,” Haun said. “I have witnessed several ribbon-cutting ceremonies in my time at Fort McCoy, and each one brings great satisfaction to see the fruits of everyone’s labors come to fruition.”

At the same ceremony in 2022, Maj. Gen. Darrell Guthrie, former Fort McCoy senior commander and commanding general of the 88th Readiness Division at Fort McCoy, praised the opening of the new facility, and what it means for Fort McCoy’s future.

“As you can see behind me, these barracks are quite different from all the other traditional barracks,” Guthrie said. “Projects like the transient training barracks (here) are a direct result of community support and especially the support of elected officials. They enhance the ability of the Army, and especially the Army Reserve, to train here at Fort McCoy.

“One of the Army Reserve’s, and therefore one of my top priorities, is our people,” Guthrie said. “The completion of this new barracks is one example of taking care of our Soldiers.”

And as the future looks brighter because of these improvements, McCoy leaders present and past have said they will need to continue to transform the post to continue to meet the Army’s needs.

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,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the My Army Post 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.”