Camp Blanding Part Two

At Camp Blanding there is a great WW II museum with lots of artifacts and equipment used during WW II.  Camp Blanding owes its current location to the U.S. Navy for desiring to establish a Naval Air Station on St. John's River for Sea Plane training.  Camp Blanding was originally established where NAS Jacksonville currently is in 1917 and was called Camp Foster.  In 1939 land was purchased on Kingsley Lake and Camp Foster was moved to its new location.  With a new camp came a new name and it was decided by the War Department to change the name to Camp Blanding in honor of Albert H Blanding which was recommended by the National Guard Officers Association.  Albert H Blanding was a U.S. Army soldier and was among the most distinguished military figures in Florida's history.  He attended  East Florida Seminary in Gainesville, FL in 1894 and was commissioned a Captain in the Florida National Guard in 1899.  Blanding led the 2nd Infantry in the 1916-1917 Pancho Villa Expedition and in August 1917 was called to serve in WW I where he commanded the 53rd Brigade, 27th Division as a Brigadier General.  He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and in 1919 returned to the Florida National Guard.  In 1940 Camp Blanding was leased to the U.S. Army as an active training center.  It originally was used by the New England and Southern troops preparing for overseas but during the course of the war it served as an infantry replacement training center, an induction center, a German prisoner of war camp and a separation center.  Between 1940 - 1945 Camp Blanding grew to 170,000 acres with more than 800,000 soldiers receiving training at Camp Blanding.
The museum is really worth a visit along with the Memorial park.  The volunteers in the museum all served in the military and some served in WW II.  The volunteer we had was retired Navy and he and Tim did a  lot of comparisons of the Navy during his time and Tim's time.  He gave us a personal tour and lots of stories about several items in the museum.  We learned a lot and after we finished in the museum we saw Army equipment from WW II, Korean War, Viet Nam War and current equipment being used in the desert now.  It was a good way to spend an afternoon and learning about the Florida National Guard and Camp Blanding was very interesting.  Take some time and visit Camp Blanding Museum and Memorial Park; it will be worth it!