Museum set to reopen

By Fort Jackson Public Affairs OfficeJune 23, 2011

FORT JACKSON, S.C. -- After two years, the Fort Jackson Museum is reopening its doors July 1, as the newly renovated U.S. Army Basic Combat Training Museum.

The grand opening event, which is scheduled from noon to 4 p.m., will feature special interactive displays for visitors to experience hands-on some of the training exercises that Soldiers practice

today.

Additionally, living historians on the museum’s grounds will be displaying military gear, uniforms and vehicles used by the U.S. Army for the past 90 years, and they will be available to answer

questions throughout the day.

This event is free and open to the public.

The Basic Combat Training Museum was originally known as the Fort Jackson Museum when it opened its doors in 1974. It had a collection of 20 artifacts and was located in the old Post Exchange building on Jackson Boulevard, across the street from Post Headquarters. From

1974 to 1985, the Fort Jackson Museum served as a history warehouse of sorts, and it collected and displayed all types of weapons, uniforms and militaria.

In 1985, the museum focused the scope of its collections, and its mission became the history of Fort Jackson. The museum collections and gallery space were reorganized at that time, and new exhibits were developed to tell the history of Fort Jackson.

From 1985 to 2008, the museum quietly existed on the corner of Forney Street and Jackson

Boulevard telling the story of how Fort Jackson opened its doors in WWI as Camp Jackson and quickly evolved into the largest Army training installation in the world.

In 2008, the museum rewrote its mission statement. The museum’s focus changed from the history of Fort Jackson to the history of Basic Combat Training, and the name of the museum

changed from the Fort Jackson Museum to the U.S. Army Basic Combat Training Museum.

Between 2009 and 2011, the museum went through a complete transformation: the museum collections were relocated, the museum was fully renovated, and a new storyline was developed in the museum’s galleries.

Today, the museum walks visitors through the experience of BCT, showing how the individual elements of training have evolved in the past century. While displaying the updates in equipment and training techniques that have transpired in the past 100 years, the museum simultaneously shows how the principles of basic combat training have remained the

same from the turn of the 20th century to today.