Fort Eustis is a United States Army installation located near Newport News,
Virginia. In 2010, it was combined with nearby Langley Air Force Base to form
Joint Base Langley–Eustis. The post is the home to the Army
Transportation Corps, and also home to the U.S. Army Aviation Logistics School.
Fort Eustis and its satellite installation, Fort Story, are the home
of the Army Aviation Logistics School and 7th Transportation Brigade. Other
significant tenants include the Army Training Support Center and the Army
Aviation Applied Technology Directorate. At Fort Eustis and Fort Story, officers
and enlisted soldiers receive education and on-the-job training in all modes of
transportation, aviation maintenance, logistics and deployment doctrine and
research. History
= Mulberry Island = Much of the low lying land along the
James River which now constitutes Fort Eustis was known in colonial times as
Mulberry Island, and was first settled by the English colonists shortly after
Jamestown was established in 1607. An important event in Virginia's history
occurred in the James River off Mulberry Island in the summer of 1610. Survivors
of the ill-fated Third Supply mission from England and the Starving Time in
the Colony had boarded ships intent upon abandoning the floundering Colony of
Virginia and were met off Mulberry Point by Lord Delaware with a fleet of ships
headed upriver bringing supplies from England and a fresh determination to
stay. He literally turned the situation around by convincing the colonists, who
had just abandoned Jamestown, to turn their ships around and go back to
colonizing in the area, rather than return to England.
Among those who almost left was John Rolfe, who had departed England with his
wife and child in 1609, with some very promising seeds for a different strain
of tobacco he hoped would prove more favorable to export from Virginia than
had been the experience to date. He had been shipwrecked on Bermuda in the Sea
Venture lost his wife and child by this time, but still had the untried seeds.
The turning point at Mulberry Island delivered both Lord Delaware and
businessman-farmer John Rolfe, two very different men, back to Jamestown, where
they and the others were to find new success.
Lord Delaware's skills and resources combined with Rolfe's new strain of
tobacco to provide the colony with effective leadership structure as the
new cash crop began financial stabilization by 1612. By 1614, Rolfe
owned an interest in a tobacco plantation. That same year, he became
the husband of Pocahontas. For the next 300 years, Mulberry Island remained very
rural, until it was purchased by the Federal Government in 1918.
= American Civil War: The Warwick Line = During the Peninsula Campaign of the
American Civil War in 1862, Fort Craword on Mulberry Island anchored the southern
end of the Warwick Line, a line of Confederate defensive works across the
Virginia Peninsula extending to Yorktown on the north at the York River.
= World War I: Camp Abraham Eustis = On 7 March 1918, the Army bought
Mulberry Island and the surrounding land for $538,000 as part of the military
build-up for World War I. Approximately 200 residents were relocated, many to
the Jefferson Park area nearby in Warwick County. Camp Abraham Eustis was
established as a coast artillery replacement center for Fort Monroe and a
balloon observation school. It was named for Brevit Brigadier General Abraham
Eustis, a 19th-century U.S. military leader who had been the first commanding
officer of Fort Monroe, a defensive fortification at the mouth of Hampton
Roads about 15 miles east at Old Point Comfort in what is now the city of
Hampton. = Camp Wallace =
A few miles upstream along the James River, a satellite facility, Camp
Wallace, was established in 1918 as the Upper Firing Range of for artillery
training. Consisting of 30 barracks, six storehouses, and eight mess halls, it
was located on 160 acres on the edge of Grove, just west of the Carter's Grove
Plantation property, south of U.S. Route 60, and east of the old Kingsmill
Plantation in nearby James City County. Camp Wallace included some rugged
terrain and bluffs overlooking the river. It was the site of anti-aircraft
training during World War II. Many years later, the Army's aerial tramway was
first erected at Camp Wallace and later moved to Fort Eustis near the Reserve
Fleet for further testing. The purpose of the tramway was to provide cargo
movement from ship-to-shore, shore-to-ship, and overland. The tramway
supplemented beach and pier operations, used unloading points deemed unusable
due to inadequate or non-navigable waters, or to traverse land that was
otherwise impassable. In 1971, the U.S. Army agreed to a land
swap with Anheuser-Busch in return for a larger parcel which is located directly
across Skiffe's Creek from Fort Eustis. Along with land previously owned by
Colonial Williamsburg, the former Camp Wallace land became part of a massive
development. Nearby, the Busch Gardens Williamsburg theme park opened in 1975,
as well as a large brewery, and the Kingsmill Resort.
= 1923: Camp becomes Fort Eustis = Camp Abraham Eustis became Fort Eustis
and a permanent military installation in 1923. In 1925 Eustis National Forest was
established on the installation. The post was garrisoned by artillery and
infantry units until 1931, when it became a federal prison, primarily for
bootleggers during Prohibition. The repeal of Prohibition resulted in a
prisoner decline and the post was taken over by various other military and
non-military activities including a WPA camp that utilized some of the barracks
on the post during the Great Depression. = World War II, modern times =
Fort Eustis was reopened as a military installation in August 1940 as the Coast
Artillery Replacement Training Center. In 1943, the Caribbean Regiment of the
British Army was formed there. In 1946, Fort Eustis became home to the newly
formed Transportation School which moved from New Orleans. Training in rail,
marine, amphibious operations and other modes of transportation was consolidated
at Fort Eustis. The Base Realignment and Closure
directives from the U.S. Congress, resulted in the U.S. Army Transportation
School and Center moving to Fort Lee, Va., in 2010. Fort Eustis was merged
with nearby Langley Air Force Base as Joint Base Langley-Eustis and its former
sub-installation Fort Story was re-aligned as a Naval installation.
Joint Base Langley Eustis gained the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command
after the closure of Fort Monroe. Ghost Fleet or Dead Fleet
A portion of the U.S. Maritime Administration's National Defense
Reserve Fleet is anchored in the James River adjacent to Mulberry Island. Known
locally as the Ghost Fleet, some of these inactive ships have become too old
and deteriorated to ever be reactivated and have become environmental hazards,
as they still hold fuel oil and other hazardous substances. Since the start of
the 21st century many of these ships, some dating back to the World War II era
have been removed under contracts with scrapping companies.
Transportation Corps Regiment On 31 July 1986, the Transportation
Corps celebrated its 44th Anniversary. This was also the day the Transportation
Corps was inducted into the U.S. Army Regimental System. The activation of the
Regiment marked the redesignation of several Transportation Corps training
commands. The redesignation provided a link with renowned transportation units
of the past. The Training Brigade was reflagged the 8th Transportation
Brigade, honoring the 8th Transportation Group in Vietnam. The 8th Transportation
Group enjoyed an outstanding reputation in Vietnam for its support of numerous
tactical operations and for the development of the "gun truck," a highly
armored 5-ton truck usually sporting multiple M2 .50 caliber machine guns.
The 2nd Battalion, Training Brigade, was reflagged as the 71st Transportation
Battalion. The 2nd Battalion, 5th Training Brigade, Fort Dix, was
reflagged as the 36th Transportation Battalion. The 5th Battalion, 4th
Training Brigade, Fort Leonard Wood was reflagged as the 58th Transportation
Battalion. These units were reflagged as part of the Army's parent regiment
system. The regimental crest is inscribed with
the Corps motto—Spearhead of Logistics—to symbolize a soldier’s
affiliation with the Transportation Corps. Upon completion of the
Transportation Officer Basic Course, officers are automatically inducted into
the Corps, Warrant Officers’ are inducted upon completion of the Warrant
Officer Candidate Course and enlisted soldiers are inducted upon completion of
Advanced Individual Training. Major General Fred E. Elam, the first
Regimental Commander, named General Frank S. Besson, Jr. as the first
honorary Colonel of the Regiment in honor of his lifelong service to the
Transportation Corps. U.S. Army transportation museum
The U.S. Army Transportation Museum, a museum of U.S. Army vehicles and other
transportation related equipment, and memorabilia, is located on the grounds
of Fort Eustis. Gallery
Current Units The following units are stationed at
Fort Eustis: U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command
128th Aviation Brigade 7th Transportation Brigade
53rd Transportation Battalion 567th Inland Cargo Transfer Company
Installation Management Command, Atlantic
Army Training Support Center Army Aviation Applied Technology
Directorate 597th Transportation Terminal Group
U.S. Army Transportation Museum 12th MP Detachment
93rd Signal Brigade 362nd TRS Detachment 1 Air Force
Helicopter Technical School Joint Deployment Training Center
NCO Academy US Army Flight Concepts Division
McDonald Army Community Hospital 221st MP Detachment
3D MP Detachment See also
Fort Eustis Military Railroad Matthew Jones House
U.S. Army Transportation Museum References
External links [1]
Fort Eustis Wheel the military-authorized newspaper
Fort Eustis homepage – official site. Fort Eustis Installation Overview from
ArmyUSA.org.