- Above, Main Gate as it stood on
4th Street before it was moved to 1st Street. (Photo by Jan
Owens)
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- Right top, Buses from all over
the country including school buses from the Greenwood School
District assisted in moving Hurricane Katrina victims from the
airport to Fort Chaffee and on to safe homes. (Photo courtesy of the
Defense Visual Information Center)
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- Right bottom, Fort Chaffee burning January 29, 2008. (Photo
Courtesy of Steve Marquez, Pastor of Calvary Chapel on Fort
Chaffee)
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| On September 9,
1941, construction started on Camp Chaffee. Then on December 7, 1941, the
first soldiers arrive. Between 1943-1946 some 3,000 German prisoners of
war encamped at Camp Chaffee. It was the home of the 5th Armored Division
from 1948-1957. In 1975 Fort Chaffee Refugee Processing Center for
Indochinese refugees. 50,809 Vietnamese refugees were processed. In
1980-1982 Fort Chaffee designated Cuban refugee Resettlement Center.
25,390 Cuban refugees were processed through. In 1983 the motion picture
"A Soldiers Story" was filmed at Fort Chaffee. In 1986 Joint Readiness
Training Center pilot program announced. In 1987 the movie "Biloxi
Blues" was also filmed there. Displaced Hurricane Katrina victims were
processed at Fort Chaffee in 2005, but for the most part it is used as a
training base. January 29, 2008, winds whipped power lines to the
ground which ignited fires that burned 150 buildings in the cantonment
area - mainly old barracks that in the past housed soldiers, Vietnamese
and Cuban refugees, and Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
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