Fort Gregg-Adams

Looking East from the Water Tank, Camp Lee, VA

Just 18 days after a state of war with Germany was declared, the first Camp Lee was established as a state mobilization camp and later became a division training camp.[1]

Camp Lee was the mobilization center for the 80th Division, the Blue Ridge Division. Because of significant common heritage in the past (Colonial Wars, Revolutionary War, and Civil War), residents of Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia became the structure of the 80th Division. The 80th Division was organized in August 1917 at Camp Lee, Virginia. The units were made up mostly of men from the above three states.[7]

Before long, Camp Lee became one of the largest “cities” in Virginia. More than 60,000 Doughboys trained here prior to their departure for the Western Front and fighting in France and Germany. Included among the many facilities here was a large camp hospital situated on 58 acres of land. One of the more trying times for the hospital staff was when the worldwide influenza epidemic reached Camp Lee in the fall of 1918. An estimated 10,000 Soldiers were stricken by flu. Nearly 700 of them died during a couple of weeks.[8]

In June 1917, building began and within sixty days some 14,000 men were on the installation. The post was home to the 155th Depot Brigade. The role of depot brigades was to receive recruits and draftees, then organize them and provide them with uniforms, equipment and initial military training. Depot brigades also received soldiers returning home at the end of the war and carried out their mustering out and discharges. When construction work ended, there were accommodations for 60,335 men.

In 1920 Camp Lee was still active, as the US 1920 Census showed many soldiers still stationed there. After World War I, Camp Lee was taken over by the Commonwealth of Virginia and designated a game preserve. Later, portions of the land were incorporated into the Petersburg National Battlefield and the Federal Correctional Institution, Petersburg. In 1921, the camp was formally closed, and its buildings were torn down, all save one – the so-called “White House.” During the war, this two-story wood-framed structure served as 80th Division Headquarters and as temporary residence for its Commander, Major General Adelbert Cronkhite. Years later, it became known as the “Davis House” in honor of the family that lived there in the 1930s and 40s.[8]

These drivers of the 666th Quartermaster Truck Company, 82nd Airborne Division, who chalked up 20,000 miles each without an accident, since arriving in the European Theater of Operations." Left to right: T/5 Sherman Hughes, T/5 Hudson Murphy, Pfc. Zacariah Gibbs

In October 1940, the War Department ordered the construction of another Camp Lee on the site of the earlier installation. Built as rapidly as the first, construction was still ongoing when the Quartermaster Replacement Training Center (QMRTC) started operation in February 1941. Their number grew to 25,000 in 1942, and peaked at 35,000 in 1944.

While the QMRTC was getting underway, the Quartermaster School was transferred to Camp Lee. In October 1941 (two months before Pearl Harbor), the Quartermaster School moved from Philadelphia to Camp Lee to begin training Officers and Non-Commissioned officers in the art of military supply and service A full program of courses was conducted, including Officer Candidate School. By the end of 1941, Camp Lee was the center of both basic and advanced training of Quartermaster personnel and held this position throughout the war.

Over the course of the war, Camp Lee’s population continued to mushroom until it became, in effect, the third largest “city” in Virginia, after Norfolk and Richmond. More than 50,000 officers attended Quartermaster Officer Candidate School. Over 300,000 Quartermaster Soldiers trained here during the war. There was a Regional Hospital with scores of pavilions and literally miles of interlocking corridors capable of housing over 2,000 patients at a time. Here too was located the Army Services Forces Training Center, the Quartermaster (Research & Development) Board, a Women’s Army Corps training center, and for a while, a prisoner of war camp and the Medical Replacement Training Center. Camp Lee enjoyed a reputation as one of the most effective and best-run military installations in the country.[8]

Camp Lee was also the home of a Medical Replacement Training Center (MRTC), but as the Quartermaster training increased, it was decided to relocate the MRTC to Camp Pickett. Later, the QMRTC was re-designated as an Army Services Forces Training Center, but it retained its basic mission of training Quartermaster personnel.

Cpl. William R. Davidson of Philadelphia, Pa., 114th Graves Registration Co., Quartermaster Corps, fills out a Form 52B, giving information regarding a deceased American soldier at the UN Cemetery at Taegu, Korea. At right are (l-r) marker (cross), unidentified soldier marker (triangular) and small bottle containing Form 1042 which is buried with the soldier, U.S. Army Photograph, 23 January 1951

In 1946, the War Department announced that Camp Lee would be retained as the center for Quartermaster training in the Army. Official recognition of its permanent status was obtained in 1950 and the post was redesignated Fort Lee.

The Quartermaster School continued operation, and in 1947, the Adjutant General’s School moved here (where it remained until 1951). The Women’s Army Corps likewise established its premier training center here from 1948 to 1954. Also in 1948, the first permanent brick and mortar structure – the Post Theater (Powhatan Beaty Theater) – was constructed.[8]

During the Korean War, tens of thousands of Soldiers arrived at Fort Lee to receive logistics training before heading overseas.

After the Korean War, progress was made on an ambitious permanent building program. The 1950s and ‘60s witnessed almost nonstop modernization efforts as, one-by-one, Fort Lee’s temporary wooden barracks, training facilities and housing units began giving way to permanent brick and cinderblock structures. New multi-storied barracks were built in the mid-50s, along with whole communities of Capehart housing for permanent party. In May 1961, the new three-story Quartermaster School, Mifflin Hall, was dedicated. Kenner Army Hospital opened in 1962, replacing the remnants of the old WWII-era facility, and the privately funded Quartermaster Museum opened its doors in 1963. Some years have seen far more change than others, but the overall process of modernization has continued ever since.[8]

The Quartermaster Training Center, created to supervise the training of Quartermaster personnel and troop units, brought an intensification of training activity within the Quartermaster Corps. As a result, the courses formerly taught at other locations were incorporated in the curriculum of the Quartermaster School.

Profound changes were evident at Fort Lee during 1962. The post became a Class 1 military installation under Second United States Army. The Quartermaster School became a part of the Continental Army Command service school system and was also selected to serve as the home of the Quartermaster Corps. The Second United States Army was inactivated at Fort Lee in 1966 until its reactivation at Fort Gillem, Georgia in 1983.

VIPs pictured during the Opening and Dedication Ceremony for the Army Womens Museum at Fort Lee, Virginia

The rapid logistics buildup in Vietnam after 1965 signaled an urgent need for many more Quartermaster Soldiers. Fort Lee responded by going into overdrive. For a time, the school maintained three shifts, and round-the-clock training. A Quartermaster Officer Candidate School opened in 1966 for the first time since World War II. A mock Vietnamese “village” was created on post to familiarize trainees with guerrilla tactics and the conditions in which they could expect to fight in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Part of the sixties-era Quartermaster training program also saw the first widespread local use of automated data processing equipment.[8]

In July 1973, Fort Lee came under the control of U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.[9] Additionally, the U.S. Army Logistics Center was established in 1973 to serve as an “integrating center” for the Quartermaster, Transportation, Ordnance, and Missile and Munitions Centers and Schools – the traditional Combat Service Support branches.

Again in 1990, there was a post reorganization and restructuring and the U.S Army Logistics Center was re-designated the U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM), and the CASCOM Commander became the Fort Lee Installation Commander as well.

In May 2001, the U.S. Army Women’s Museum (AWM) relocated to Fort Lee. It offered more than 13,000 feet of gallery space and thousands of artifacts used to tell the long, proud history of women in the Army. Additionally, the installation hosted a growing number of tenant activities such as the Army Logistics Management Center (ALMC), Readiness Group Lee, Materiel Systems Analysis Activity, the General Leonard T. Gerow U.S. Army Reserve Center, the Defense Commissary Agency (DECA), USAR 80th Division, and several other Department of Army and Department of Defense activities.[8]

U.S. Army Command Arms Support Command (circa 2009)

In 2005 a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) law was passed by Congress. One of BRAC's requirements was the relocation of the United States Army Ordnance Center and School headquarters, the Ordnance Mechanical Maintenance School (OMMS) from Aberdeen Proving Ground, the United States Army Ordnance Munitions and Electronic Maintenance School (OMEMS) from Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and the Ordnance Museum to Fort Gregg-Adams by September 2011.[10] The transfer of artifacts from Aberdeen to Fort Gregg-Adams began in August 2009, with the former museum now designated the U.S. Army Ordnance Training and Heritage Center at Fort Gregg-Adams.[10] Also, the headquarters of the U.S. Army Transportation Center and School from Fort Eustis was brought to the installation.

One of the principal parts of BRAC was the Sustainment Center of Excellence (SCoE) headquarters building project. In the summer of 2007, there was a ground-breaking ceremony on Sergeant Seay Field, the site of the new facility. The SCoE headquarters took 18 months to build and was formally dedicated in January 2009. It now houses the Combined Arms Support Command and command groups for the Quartermaster, Ordnance, and Transportation Corps. During a ceremony on July 30, 2010, the old CASCOM headquarters was officially retired, and the new building was proudly rededicated as “Mifflin Hall.” To help make way for the structure, the First Logistical Command Memorial – which had been located on that site since 1974 – was carefully unmoored and moved to a more prominent spot facing the main post entrance.[8]

The Army Sustainment University is located on Fort Gregg-Adams.

In addition, a new U.S. Army Logistics University was built and opened in July 2009 to centralize basic and advanced NCO, warrant officer, commissioned officer and government civilian leadership training for all Army sustainment branches. The 400,000-square-foot building now offers more than 200 courses and trains upward of 2,300 military and civilian students daily. Its International Studies program is attended by military personnel from more than 30 allied countries.[11]

Fort Gregg-Adams is the country's first army post to host a 'full-size' statue commemorating the service of women in the Army. The statue was unveiled in 2013.'Lt. FAWMA' -- Army Women's Museum unveils one-of-kind statue of female Soldier

The installation emerged as the center of logistics and sustainment for the U.S. Army. With the completion of the BRAC construction projects, the installation acquired 6.5 million square feet of new facilities and about 70,000 troops now train here each year. In 2017, the post marked its Centennial with a year-long celebration themed "A Century of Support to the Nation."

In July 2021, the post was tasked to support Operation Allies Refuge, with a goal of helping Afghan evacuees transition to a new life in the United States at the conclusion of the war in Afghanistan. Post leaders assembled a group called “Task Force Eagle,” which spent the next four months supporting OAR. The Department of Defense, through U.S. Northern Command, and in support of the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security, provided transportation, temporary housing, medical screening and general support for Afghan evacuees at military facilities across the country.[8]

The mission was to support vulnerable Afghans and their families while they finished processing with immigration services, applied for work authorizations and underwent medical care prior to resettlement in the U.S. Fort Gregg-Adams (then Fort Lee) was the first of eight installations selected to provide temporary lodging and other living needs for the Afghan evacuees. The post was initially identified by the U.S. Army as an east coast location that could quickly be used to provide temporary housing for Afghans and their families to finish administrative checks and undergo the necessary medical exams to qualify for a Special Immigrant Visa. Over 3,000 of them were temporarily housed on post by the end of November 2021 when the mission was concluded.

Retired Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg, namesake of the newly named Gregg-Adams Club, is congratulated by Maj. Gen. Mark T. Simerly.

On 27 April 2023 during a redesignation ceremony[12] the name of Fort Lee was changed to Fort Gregg-Adams which is named after two African American officers Lt. Gen. Arthur J. Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams.[5][2] The name change was recommended by the Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense[13] as part of the renaming of military assets which were associated with the Confederate States of America.[14][15] The naming of Fort Gregg-Adams is notable as it is the first time since 1900 where a fort has been named after a service member who is still alive.[2]

Major Charity E. Adams

Other infrastructure on the base have already been renamed including the street signs along the former Lee Avenue, now Gregg Avenue, and the signage for the Gregg-Adams Officers' Club on base, into which notably Lt. Gen. Arthur Gregg had been denied entrance back in 1950 as a young Second Lieutenant, at a time when discrimination and segregation were still being practiced against African American Uniformed Personnel, even against an executive order to the contrary, signed by President Harry S. Truman two years prior.[16][17][18]