Ahh, Ft. Leonard Wood - where I took Army basic training. The memories!!!
I was at 6 forts in the late 60s and early 70s. Ft. Leonard Wood was the biggest hell hole on earth. And I was at Polk in August. LOL
AIT for me. We policed rocks from the lawn. Every day there were more rocks. I'll bet they're still policing rocks from the same lawns.
Well... Fort Leonard Wood has changed a lot in 50 years. The post is now the home of the Army Engineer School, Army Chemical School (now called CBRN) and MP School, it’s the center for virtually all army truck driving and convoy training, and it’s the largest Marine detachment off a Marine base and largest Air Force detachment off an Air Force base.
The off-post community is approaching 35,000 people, with another 10,000 to 15,000 permanent party and family members living on post depending on the time of year and training load. The closer-in communities will show nearly double the population in 2010 that they had in the 2000 census, and lots of people are also living in the unincorporated areas and smaller towns.
But as for the training environment (ticks, chiggers, snakes, etc.), well, the best thing that can be said is our soldiers have better fabric for their uniforms and better boots than they once did. The post was built in 1940 to simulate a rocky and hilly European battlefield environment like what our soldiers would be expecting to fight in over there, and it certainly doesn’t have the luxuries of American big city life. At least it’s not Fort Irwin or someplace that’s designed to simulate hot desert conditions our soldiers will be fighting in today.