Fort McCoy, Wisconsin

Fort McCoy is the largest military site in Wisconsin, a state with an otherwise small military footprint. It is an Army Reserve base, with housing for several thousand, and 60,000 acres of land. It started as the Sparta Maneuver Tract, in 1909, and it was expanded leading up to World War II, during which the camp had space for 35,000 soldiers. It was also a POW Camp for 6,000 German and Japanese prisoners, as well as an internment camp for a few hundred Japanese, German, and Italian US citizens, suspected of being “enemy aliens.” After the war, activity at the base shrank, rising only during the Korean and Vietnam wars.  In the 1990s, it was upgraded again. Today, more than 100,000 soldiers train on the expansive grounds of the base every year, north of the main encampment, where several maneuver ranges, such as the Combined Arms Collective Training Facility, and the Improved Tactical Training Base Freedom, are located, as well as live fire and target ranges, vehicle training areas, and mock villages. The base is a “Total Force Training Center,” used by many branches of the armed services.