Camp Toccoa
| Camp Toccoa | |
|---|---|
| Toccoa, Georgia | |
 | |
| Type | Military Training Base |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by | United States |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1940 |
| In use | 1941- ca. 1946 |
Camp Toccoa was a United States Army paratrooper training camp during World War II five miles west of Toccoa, Georgia.
It was first planned in 1938, constructed by the Georgia National Guard and the Works Projects Administration beginning January 17, 1940, and was dedicated December 14, 1940. The facility was initially named Camp General Robert Toombs after a Confederate Civil War General.
WWII
In 1942 the U.S. Army took over the site. There were very few buildings or facilities there and original personnel were housed in tents. More permanent barracks were built as the first paratroopers started to arrive. The story goes that Colonel Robert Sink, commander of one of the first units to train there, the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), thought that it was bad psychology to have young men arrive at Toccoa, travel Route 13 past a casket factory (the Toccoa Casket Company) to learn to jump at Camp "Tombs", so he persuaded the Department of the Army to change the name to Camp Toccoa.
Initially, Camp Toccoa used the Toccoa municipal airport for jump training, but due to a transport accident, it was abandoned for having too short a runway for safe for C-39 and C-47 operations. All further jump training occurred at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Camp Toccoa also lacked a rifle range, so airborne trainees would march thirty miles to Clemson Agricultural College, a military school in South Carolina, to practice on the college's shooting range.
The most prominent local landmark is Currahee Mountain. Paratroopers in training ran from the camp up the mountain and back, memorialized in the HBO series, Band of Brothers, with the shout "three miles up, three miles down." Members of the 506th refer to themselves as "Currahees", derived from the Cherokee word gurahiyi, which may mean "standing alone".[1] The crest is surmounted by a group of telecommunications towers.
After WWII
The camp closed at the end of the war. In the late 1940s, it served as a Georgia State Prison site, housing primarily youthful offenders, but several escapes forced the state to close the site, moving the operation to a new facility at Alto, Georgia. It was here, while incarcerated for juvenile misbehavior, that Soul superstar James Brown decided to change his life around for the better. Today the site has several memorials to the men who trained there. The twisting trail up Currahee is now named for Colonel Sink. The only remaining building from the camp is the mess hall, which sits on a corner of a Milliken & Company textile plant. Patterson Pumps Company occupies another portion of the grounds.
Units trained at Toccoa
- 501st PIR: attached to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division
- 506th PIR: attached to the U.S. 101st Airborne Division
- 507th PIR: attached to the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. 17th Airborne Division
- 511th PIR: attached to the U.S. 11th Airborne Division
- 517th PIR: attached to the U.S. 17th Airborne Division and the U.S. 13th Airborne Division
- 457th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion: attached to the U.S. 11th Airborne Division
- 295th Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Company (FA): division completed their second phase of basic training at Camp Toccoa from July 21, 1943, through November 24, 1943. Their first phase of basic training began at Camp Sutton, North Carolina, on April 16, 1943.
References
- ^ See Curraheee Mountain in Georgia Place-Names by Kenneth K. Krakow
Non Military References
Camp Toccoa is a Camp Fire USA camp for boys and girls located in Toccoa, GA.