Fort Dix

Fort Dix

Fort Dix U.S. army training center was est. June 1917 as Camp Dix and named for U.S. statesman John A. Dix. March 8,1939 it was made a permanent garrison and renamed Fort Dix. During World War II, Fort Dix was the largest army training center in the country. Ft. Dix is used mainly to train Army National Guard and Army reserve units. The largest federal penitentiary in the country and a state prison are also housed on the grounds as well as the Atlantic strike team of the US Coast Guard. McGuire Air Force Base, borders Ft. Dix.

The installation covers 31,110 acres and contains built-up areas (cantonment, hospital, housing, administrative buildings, etc.), training areas, and a test range. Fort Dix's mission is to provide supervision, training, guidance, financial management, administrative and logistical support, and other services and support activities.

Ft. Dix location also plays a key role in the post's continued importance as a Power Projection Platform. Fort Dix is located in the center of air, road and rail networks. Fort Dix is located about 17 miles southeast of New Jersey's capital, Trenton. Fort Dix shares a fence line with McGuire Air Force Base and the Naval Air Engineering Station in Lakehurst, NJ. With McGuire Air Force Base right next door and top-notch facilities just up the road in Bayonne, Fort Dix has always been an obvious choice for deploying soldiers and equipment to any theater of operations. More than a quarter of the nation's U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard units are stationed within a 200 mile radius of Fort Dix.

Fort Dix will join Mcguire AFB and Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station to become the nations first joint base.

Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst

Joint Base Mcguire-Dix-Lakehurst is a tri-service military facility that combines McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix and Lakehurst Naval Air Engineering Station.

In February 2004, installation commanders from all three installations formed a partnership to generate joint solutions for common problems between the three bases and their tenant commands. The three installation commanders are already reducing operating costs by consolidating firearms training, radar information for air operations, and contracts for pest control, linen service, and hazardous waste disposal. While each base serves its respective service directly, each base also takes advantage of the other bases’ capabilities as part of a Joint Installation Partnership.

• The NJ Army National Guard's 254th Regiment operates M1A1 tanks out of Navy Lakehurst. As part of their training, they transit via Navy Lakehurst to the live-fire and maneuver ranges at Fort Dix.

• The Air Force plans to station a squadron of C-17 airlift aircraft at McGuire AFB. The C-17 often is required to take off and land from poorly prepared airfields, often in hostile territory. The airfield conditions at McGuire were not suitable for training for this type of operation. Navy Lakehurst has agreed to let the Air Force construct a practice assault landing strip at their airfield. The C-17s stationed at McGuire will train at Lakehurst and not interfere with normal aircraft operations at McGuire.

• The 421st Ground Combat Readiness Squadron is headquartered at McGuire AFB and trains at Navy Lakehurst.

• Navy Lakehurst and McGuire AFB use the live-fire training ranges at Fort Dix eliminating the need for individual ranges.

McGuire AFB (Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst)
3011 Tuskegee Airman Ave McGuire AFB, NJ 08641-5000 Phone 609-754-3154 / 609-754-2024/3294 Phone (DSN) 312-650-3154 Fax 609-754-5750 Fax (DSN) 312-650-5750

Fort Dix History

Fort Dix is named after Major General John Adams Dix. Dix was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Dix also served as Secretary of the US Treasury, US Senator and Governor of New York. Construction started on Camp Dix in June 1917. Camp Dix was a training and staging ground for units during World War I. The camp became a demobilization center after the war. Between the World Wars, Camp Dix was a reception, training and discharge center for the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Camp Dix becomes Fort Dix on March 8,1939.
The installation became a permanent Army post. During World War II, Fort Dix was the largest army training center in the country. During and after World War II the Ft. Dix served as a training and staging ground during the war and a demobilization center after the war.
July 15,1947
Fort Dix became a Basic Training Center and the home of the 9th Infantry Division. In 1954, the 9th moved out and the 69th Infantry Division made the fort home until it was deactivated on March 16,1956.
Vietnam era
During the Vietnam War Ft. Dix saw rapid expansion take place. Soldiers received Vietnam-specific training before being deployed which included training in a mock Vietnam village.
Post Vietnam era
Fort Dix has sent thousands of soldiers to Operation Desert Storm, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Fort Dix was on a base closure list and The U.S. Air Force attempted to save the U.S. Army post during 1987. The U.S.A.F. Moved the Security Police Air Base Ground Defense school from Camp Bullis San Antonio, Texas to Fort Dix in the fall of 1987. It was eventually realized that it was not cost effective to put 50-100 S.P. trainees on a commercial flight from San Antonio Texas to Philadelphia Pennsylvania every couple of weeks so the school was later moved back to Camp Bullis, San Antonio Texas. Ft. Dix was an early casualty of the first Base Realignment and Closure process in the early 1990s, losing the basic-training mission that had introduced new recruits to military life since 1917. Ft Dix advocates attracted Army Reserve interest in keeping the post as a training reservation. Ft Dix now employs 3,000 and up to 15,000 troops train there on weekends. Ft. Dix is a major mobilization point for reserve and National Guard troops since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Fort Dix has completed its realignment from an individual training center to a United States Army Forces Command Power Projection Platform for the Northeastern United States under the command and control of the United States Army Reserve Command. Primary missions include being a center of excellence for training, mobilizing and deploying Army Reserve and National Guard units; providing regional base operations support to on-post and off-post active and reserve component units of all services; and providing a high-quality community environment, including 848 housing units for service members and their families. Fort Dix supported more than 1.1 million man-days of training in 1998. A daily average of more than 13,500 persons live or work within the garrison and its tenant organizations. Fort Dix subinstallations include the Charles E. Kelly Support Facility in Oakdale, Pennsylvania and the Devens Reserve Forces Training Area in Ayer, Massachusetts. In 2005, the United States Department of Defense announced that Fort Dix would be affected by a Base Realignment and Closure. It will be merged with two neighboring military bases, McGuire Air Force Base and Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, establishing Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. This will be the first base of its kind in the United States.

References
Official Fort Dix site http://www.dix.army.mil/

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Dix

Ft. Dix Ultimate Weapon monument

"Ultimate Weapon" monument

In 1957, Specialist 4 Steven Goodman, assisted by PFC Stuart Scherr, made a small clay model of an infantryman during. Their tabletop model was spotted by a public relations officer who brought it to the attention of Deputy Post Commander Bruce Clarke, who suggested the construction of a larger statue to serve as a symbol of Fort Dix.Spc. Goodman and PFC Scherr,both studied industrial arts together in New York City and were classified by the Army as illustrators, undertook the project under the management of Sergeant Major Bill Wright. Operating on a limited budget, they created a 12-foot figure of a charging infantryman in full battle dress, representing no particular race or ethnicity, from old railroad track and other available items.

By 1988, years of weather had taken a toll on the statue, and a restoration campaign raised over $100,000. Under the auspices of Goodman and the Fort Dix chapter of the Association of the United States Army, the statue was recast in bronze and its concrete base replaced by black granite.

The statue stands 25 feet tall at the entrance to Infantry Park. Its inscription reads

This monument is dedicated to
the only indispensable instrument of war,
The American Soldier---

THE ULTIMATE WEAPON

"If they are not there,
you don't own it."

17 August 1990