Camp Atterbury, located in south-central Indiana, about 4 miles west of Edinburgh, Indiana, serves as a military and civilian training base under the auspices of the Indiana National Guard. The camp is named in memory of William Wallace Atterbury, a New Albany, Indiana, native who received a Distinguished Service Medal for his contributions during World War I. Initially established in 1941 on 40,351.5348 acres of land, Camp Atterbury opened in 1942 and continues to embody its motto, Preparamus , as a site for preparing American military personnel and civilians for service. During its peak years during World War II, Camp Atterbury's primary mission was to provide combat training for the U.S. Army. Numerous auxiliary and service units, as well as four U.S. Army divisions, trained at the camp between 1942 and 1944. Wakeman Hospital Center, the camp's 6,000-bed hospital and convalescent center, became the largest in the Fifth Service Command. It trained medical personnel and treated an estimated 85,000 patients during the war. Between 1943 and 1946, a portion of the camp was used an internment compound for an estimated 15,000 soldiers, most of them Italian and German prisoners of war. A small chapel that the Italian prisoners built in 1943 is the camp's only remaining POW-related structure. Camp Atterbury also served as a military reception and separation center during the war. Its separation center, one of eighteen such facilities in the United States, discharged a total of 537,344 enlisted men and 39,495 officers from military service. Camp Atterbury and Wakeman Hospital were deactivated in December 1946. After World War II, Camp Atterbury remained on stand-by status until 1950, when it was reactivated as a military training center during the Korean conflict. After the U.S. Army discontinued its use as a military installation in December 1968, the Indiana National Guard assumed responsibility for oversight of the camp. Since 1969 the camp had continued to serve as a military and civilian training facility. It supports the Indiana National Guard and its missions, the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center , and the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center . In addition, portions of the camp have been leased to other groups, including the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the Atterbury Job Corps, and the Johnson County, Indiana, parks department, among others.
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