Camp Bowie - Brown County

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CAMP BOWIE (Brown County). Camp Bowie was established at Brownwood in September 1940 as an infantry and artillery training center for the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division, Texas National Guard and was named in honor of the Texas patriot James Bowie. It was the first major defense construction project in Texas in World War II.

The camp was occupied by the end of December 1940 by the 111th Quartermaster Regiment of the Thirty-sixth Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Claude V. Birkhead. By October 1942 Camp Bowie had expanded from an original 2,000 acres to a total of 120,000 acres and was occupied, in addition to the Thirty-sixth Division, by the 113th Cavalry of the Iowa National Guard, the Eighth Army Corps with its headquarters, and troops of the Third Army under Gen. Walter Krueger.

The Third Army personnel at Camp Bowie was composed of special troops of the Seventh Headquarters Detachment of the Third Army, medical units ranging from the Second to the Seventeenth, some engineer companies, signal battalions, and chemical companies. The Eighth Corps comprised the 174th and 142nd Field Artillery groups. The Eighteenth Field Artillery Brigade, the Fourth Armored Division, and the Seventh Headquarters Special Troops of the Fourth Army were also stationed at Camp Bowie at various times.

A WAC contingent was attached to the Tank Destroyer Group and the Service Command Unit. A rehabilitation center to serve all posts and camps of the Eighth Service Command was set up in January 1942, and in August 1943 a prisoner of war camp with a capacity of 3,000 prisoners was established within the post. Camp Bowie was declared surplus by a War Department order, effective August 31, 1946.