Camp Funston is a U.S. Army training camp located on Fort Riley, southwest of Manhattan, Kansas. The camp was named for

Brigadier General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointe ...

Frederick Funston (1865–1917). It is one of sixteen such camps established at the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

History

World War I

Construction began during the summer of 1917 and eventually encompassed approximately 1,400 buildings on . The Camp Funston garrison was administered by the 164th Depot Brigade, commanders of which included

George King Hunter George King Hunter (April 6, 1855 – February 2, 1940) was a career officer in the United States Army. A veteran of the American Indian Wars, Spanish–American War, Philippine–American War, and World War I, he was a recipient of the Silver St ...

. Depot brigades were responsible for receiving, housing, equipping, and training enlistees and draftees, and for demobilizing them after the war. During World War I, two divisions commanded by

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

Leonard Wood, totaling nearly 50,000 recruits, trained at Camp Funston. Notable units who received training at Camp Funston include the 89th Division, which was deployed to France in the spring of 1918, the 10th Division and black soldiers assigned to the 92nd Division. During World War I, Camp Funston also served as a detention camp for conscientious objectors (COs) many of which were Mennonite in faith. Since it was compulsory,

Hutterites Hutterites (german: link=no, Hutterer), also called Hutterian Brethren (German: ), are a communal ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptists, who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the early 16th cent ...

sent their young men to military camps, but they did not allow them to obey any military commands or wear a uniform. In March 1918, some of the first recorded American cases of what came to be the worldwide influenza pandemic, also known as "

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

", were reported at Camp Funston. Barry, John M. '' The Great Influenza''. New York: Penguin Publishing Inc. 2004.

Correctional camp

Prior to October 1992, Camp Funston was the home of the United States Army Correctional Activity, formerly U.S. Army Retraining Brigade, whose mission was officially to prepare prisoners for transition to civilian life as useful citizens with General Discharges or, in a few select cases, for return to duty. The Correctional Brigade environment was unique in that prisoner control was maintained by military discipline, instead of walls and bars for most of the typical prisoners’ stay. The Correctional Brigade doctrine was that the minimum custody/military discipline environment when coupled with correctional treatment, educational programs, military and vocational training best prepared the typical first-time prisoner for a crime-free life after prison as either a productive soldier or a useful citizen in civilian life. Moreover, this correctional system was asserted to be less expensive to establish and operate than the traditional prison. The camp had a cinema that was open to the residents of Fort Riley, including those outside of Camp Funston.

Modern use

Camp Funston was the location where the training of all military transition teams for service in Iraq and Afghanistan takes place. Previously, transition teams had been trained at several U.S. Army installations, most notably

Fort Carson, Colorado Fort Carson is a United States Army post located directly south of Colorado Springs in El Paso, Pueblo, Fremont, and Huerfano counties, Colorado, United States. The developed portion of Fort Carson is located near the City of Colorado Springs ...

; Camp Atterbury, Indiana;

Fort Hood, Texas Fort Hood is a United States Army post located near Killeen, Texas. Named after Confederate General John Bell Hood, it is located halfway between Austin and Waco, about from each, within the U.S. state of Texas. The post is the headquart ...

; and Camp Shelby, Mississippi. However, in early 2006, the U.S. Army decided to consolidate all training at Fort Riley, Kansas, in order to standardize and improve training for that critical mission. The first teams began training on June 1, 2006. The 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division took over command and control of the TT mission in October 2006. The brigade is responsible for the formation and training of the TT teams. This mission shifted to Fort Polk, Louisiana later in 2009.

References

External links