CAMP DODGE.
Camp Dodge, the spot where many Iowans have made their first contact with the armed services, will be deactivated July 1, 1944, and thenceforth, Iowans entering the services will be sent to Ft. Leavenworth, Kans., Ft. Snelling, Minn., or Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
This is in line with putting as many army men into field duty as possible, according to the seventh service command which gave the order.
Some 265,000 Iowans have gone through Camp Dodge or Fort Des Moines, before it became the First WAC training center in 1942, and they will always have fond memories of the spot which became a beautiful one in comparison with its World War I days.
The state will receive the property back. It had rented the site to the federal government for $1 per year. In return it may get the fine new hospital, which the army constructed, as well as the many other improvements made.
Not only the induction station and reception center will be deactivated but the third phase of Camp Dodge also will shut down. That is the basic training section. This was set up last August but since then a good many Iowans, as well as others from other parts of the seventh service command, have taken their basic there.
Source: Postville Herald, Postville, Iowa, Wednesday, June 21, 1944
