Camp Howze

The U.S. Army activated Camp Howze, which initially served as an infantry training facility, on August 17, 1942. The camp was located in Gainesville, Texas and was built on land purchased from local farmers. Because the U.S. Army commissioned the camp in March of that year, civilian workers hurried to construct basic military facilities such as barracks before the soldiers arrived. Camp Howze trained soldiers in a variety of infantry, artillery, and engineering fields, but also offered ore specialized training, like a glider training program.

Camp Howze sat on nearly 58,000 acres in Cooke County, Texas and served over 90,000 troops in total. While at Camp Howze, the 103rd Infantry Division trained alongside the 84th and 86th Infantry Divisions before their deployment to Europe. The soldiers from the 103rd Infantry Division quickly forgot the nearby small towns of Leesville and Alexandria Louisiana when they discovered the big city lights of Dallas and Fort Worth. These large Texas cities were much more conducive to a good time while on leave than the small towns outside Camp Claiborne. Additionally, the environment at Camp Howze was better than the Cactusmen had experienced at Camp Claiborne. The weather was less hot and humid. At Camp Howze, the buildings had a single wooden wall covered in black tar paper and when it was cold, a coal stove at the end of each building provided some heat. Forty men lived in each building.

While stationed at Camp Howze, the 103rd Infantry Division was constantly evolving and adding new soldiers to bolster the enlisted ranks. When the division was first activated from its reserve status, there was an overabundance of officers, but hardly any enlisted men for those officers to command. When the 103rd arrived at Camp Howze to continue its training, the Army worked to correct this dilemma and fill the unit with enlisted men. While some men were regular volunteer enlistees or the draftees, an overwhelming number of the enlisted force for the 103rd Infantry Division came from the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). This program, which was a modified version of the more popular Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), was designed to teach men a particular skillset that was deemed critical for the Army. The plan was for the men to be trained at a college or university and then commission as officers in roughly two years. Due to the critical need for enlisted men, however, the Army cut the ASTP program and the men enrolled in the program were ordered to report to Camp Howze as enlisted soldiers, becoming infantrymen rather than officers as originally planned.

As more men joined the ranks of the 103rd at Camp Howze, the various units of the division became more defined. At Camp Howze, the infantry and support units of the division participated in seemingly endless “field problems” (field exercises) and combat training scenarios to simulate combat at various levels of command. These field exercises, while tiring and at times repetitive, gave the officers and men of the 103rd Infantry the training needed once they left the United States and sailed to their final theater of operations. Along with the field exercises practiced by the division as a whole, the various support units for the division also worked hard to hone their skills to support the infantry regiments. The engineers worked tirelessly on how to build bridges out of pontoon boats or other tools available, clear roads of obstacles, and other jobs. The men of the artillery battalions worked to improve their accuracy, speed, and teamwork. One interesting aspect of training that also took place for the men of the 103rd Infantry while stationed at Camp Howze was that they underwent glider orientation and training. This training was completed to teach the men of the 103rd how to fly and be deployed from glider aircraft that can be deployed behind enemy lines. While the 103rd ultimately never participated in any glider landings or action during World War II, this bizarre inclusion in their training kept the men guessing as to what their role would be in the war and where they would ultimately fight.

One of the weekly highlights at Camp Howze was the camp's weekly newspaper. The nearby local newspaper the Gainesville Daily Register also published, printed, and distributed the Camp Howze Howitzer for the base. Each week, the Howitzer covered topics of interest to the soldiers stationed at the camp who received the paper for free. These topics included results of camp sporting events, entertainment news, trivia contests, war news from Europe and the Pacific, and Milt Caniff's cartoon strip: "Male Call." The University of North Texas’s “Portal to Texas History” has digitized a large number of the Camp Howze Howitzer, which are available for study on its website.

On September 15, 1944, the 103rd Infantry Division held its final parade at Camp Howze. The men expressed: “What better way to break up the intense training regimen than a parade! Oh, joy, the spit and polish came with those parades, but the men of the 103rd Infantry Division were a proud bunch, and despite the "bitching" about spit and polish, these men came out with boots shined and uniforms immaculate.” These men not only looked ready to fight a war, they felt ready. After the parade, the Cactus Division received an order: Headquarters, XXIII Corps, dated August 5, 1944, Subject: Movement Orders, Shipment 6299. 103rd Division, Camp Howze, Texas to Camp Shanks, New York. First, they prepared to move by inspecting their equipment. Then, the men boxed and crated equipment and loaded them onto the trains that would take the entire division to New York. On September 20, 1944, the advance party left Camp Howze for Camp Shanks. The first unit to move in mass was the 411th Infantry Regiment, which loaded onto six trains and headed for New York. What was their final destination? Europe? No one knew, but speculation ran high.

After the war, the US government could not afford to maintain Camp Howze as a permanent training facility. By 1947, the last remaining structures had been removed. Local farmers were given the option to purchase their land back (though few actually did so). Farmers who did return to their land often found live ammunition left behind from artillery training. Today, the buildings’ foundation pilings and the 120ft tall concrete water tower are all that is currently visible from the original Camp Howze.