"Back at the Gap" BACK AT THE GAP Major General Frank H. Smoker, Jr. (USAF, Retired) New war brings promise of new activity at Gap With the end of World War II in August 1945, activity at Indiantown Gap was gradually brought to a close. The Station Hospital was discontinued effective April 30, 1946. Also, effective that same date, the War Department placed IGMR in an inactive status, and then in October, IGMR was inactivated as a federal base, and the Reservation became a Pennsylvania National Guard training site once again. Indiantown Gap Military Reservation was turned over to the 28th Infantry Division and Major General (then Brigadier General) Frank A. Weber took command of the facility when he became the Adjutant General of Pennsylvania on 11 February 1947. General Weber was appointed the administrator of the Post so the training of Guard and "Organized Reserves" could be carried out more efficiently. He saw before him a massive facility that the Army no longer saw a need for, but he could see possibilities within the buildings that the Army had built and abandoned to the Pennsylvania National Guard. In October 1947, the Adjutant General's Office of Pennsylvania moved from Harrisburg to IGMR, and established the headquarters for the Pennsylvania Army and Air National Guard, both of which remain there today. The headquarters was set up in a building 96 ft. by 380 ft., which had been constructed as a Separation Center Headquarters in 1945, and was returned to the state by the Federal Government without cost, due to the efforts of General Weber. The total value of the building and its installed property is $850,000. The installed property includes desks, typewriters, filing equipment, counters, and other office furniture which enables efficient operation. This placed under one roof the major offices of the Department dealing with Pennsylvania National Guard activities, which provided economy and efficiency in operation. The following offices were involved in the consolidation: The Adjutant General’s Department, 28th Infantry Division Headquarters, Office of the United States Property and Disbursing Officer for Pennsylvania, Reservation Maintenance Office, State Armory Board, Senior Army and Senior Air Instructors, and 103rd Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company, which is the operation section of the State Maintenance Pool. This consolidation has been referred to as a model of military operation for the National Guard organizations of other states, and during the next three years was been the subject of visitations from the officials of the National Guard Bureau, Department of the Army, and individual states to make a study and determine the adaptability of the operation for their particular agencies. General Weber oversaw the conversion of many other buildings that were built during the war for the Army to the needs of the National Guard. His creativity and sense of duty to this singular end is evident in the above article. He cared about the camp and wanted to see it continue as the home of the 28th Infantry Division. In 1948, General Weber handled the quartering of more troops than there were in the entire Second Army in an experiment to get maximum use of the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, which had been idle year round except for two weeks of summer training. General Weber repeatedly boasted that he could put an additional 10,000 troops under canvas. No other state in the country had such an ambitious peacetime camp schedule as that conducted by General Weber from mid-June to early September, 1949. A “Construction of Equipment” plan was the most extensive of the improvements put forth by General Weber and it was an ingenious concept - to, create of a large storage area for all the heavy equipment of the 28th Infantry Division. Recent completion of eight vehicular storage buildings and a hangar for light aircraft at the Gap would provide adequate storage space for year-round concentration of all heavy training equipment required by the units. Therefore, beginning with the 1950 summer field training season, the long overland haul of combat and certain special purpose vehicles from home armory to Indiantown Gap and return would not be necessary. Units will to be issued sufficient equipment at home armories to comply with National Guard Training Program for year-round weekly training periods, then for summer camp they will only have to transport men, small arms and normal impedimenta. Out-of-state divisions training at the Gap would also have access to the storage facilities for concentration of their equipment. The new plan will save wear and tear on the equipment, will reduce the highway traffic, will lessen accidents and at the same time save thousands of dollars in transportation cost. Types of equipment to be stored include tanks, howitzers, anti-aircraft artillery, 13-ton, 18-ton, and 38-ton tractors, bulldozers, road graters, road rollers, cranes, water purification units, combat engineer bridge equipment, hundreds of general purpose trucks, ambulances and cross-country cargo trucks, in addition to all other technical service supplies. This concept built upon the success of the previous year’s venture and added to the ability to handle more troops at less cost and less wear and tear on equipment. The Gap became known as a "furnished house" for more than 30,000 National Guardsmen and Organized Reserve soldiers from Pennsylvania and neighboring states. As Lieutenant General Leonard T. Gerow, then commander of Second Army summed it up, "This is something we all talked about for years as an ideal training set-up ..... then Bridgie Weber does it without batting an eye”. Realizing that the Korean Emergency was going to require the training of thousands of men, General Weber instigated a personal campaign to have the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation reactivated for this purpose. He realized that the Government and the Commonwealth would mutually benefit if the spacious Reservation were used for training. Here existed an ideal encampment that would "fill the bill" and give hundreds of Pennsylvanians gainful employment. The Department of the Army recognized the extensive benefits of activating "the Gap” and concurred with General Weber in this regard by official orders for activation of the Reservation on 23 January 1951 under the federal government’s jurisdiction. General Weber, as Reservation Advisor, in cooperation with the US Army Corps of Engineers, managed to instigate an immense "face-lifting" program in June 1951. The facilities of the large post were in a state of serious neglect due to the fact that no major maintenance projects had been undertaken since World War Two. The face-lifting program called for the painting and renovation of all buildings. A total of $53,788,624.20 in Federal funds was expended or obligated during this period on the rehabilitation of Indiantown Gap Military Reservation. Roofing costs were over half a million dollars. All of these “temporary” buildings were painted -- white with green trim, General Weber’s favorite colors! From 1951 to 1953, during the Korean War, the Gap once again became an active Army base. It became the home of the 5th Infantry Division whose mission was to train 32,000 troops as replacements for assignment to Korea. During the period of June 25, 1951 through August 31, 1952, civilian payroll was $4,497,418.63. Communications cost was $128,827.61. Effective 23 January 1951, Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, was returned to active status to be ready for occupancy 1 February 1951. The US Army Hospital, IGMR, was authorized 100 beds for operation on 1 March 1951 and was later authorized 300 beds for operation on 26 June 1952. This was followed by the Department of the Army ordering the Fifth Division (Training) at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation to be set up with its initial complement. The 5th Infantry Division (Training) gave IGMR a military population of over 17,000 troops. During mobilization for the Korean Conflict, regular training for the National Guard was carried out simultaneously. The training mission of the 5th "Red Diamond" Division ran from March 1, 1951- September 1, 1953. The last 5th Div. unit to train at the post was the 46th Field Artillery which completed training August 3, 1953. Published in the Lebanon Daily News on Wednesday, 25 August 2004 © 2004 Frank H. Smoker, Jr. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the author. Go "Back at the Gap" Index