![]() Photo taken by the La Crosse Tribune photographer Steve Noffke on May 19, 1980. Ryan Howell, the garrison archeologist at Fort McCoy, said the ability to ramp up suddenly is one of the reasons Fort McCoy was tapped as a resettlement center for the Mariel refugees.Īn unidentified military personnel member stands near freshly made beds inside one of the barracks at Fort McCoy. They had to act fast to make Fort McCoy a designated resettlement center, equipped to house thousands of people. to start preparing for the arrival of Cuban refugees. On May 9, 1980, Fort McCoy staff received orders from Washington, D.C. It was the first resettlement effort there since the Cubans arrived in 1980. More recently, thousands of Afghan refugees were sent to Fort McCoy in 2021 after the country fell to the Taliban. Then in 1943, it transitioned to a prisoner of war camp, holding more than 10,000 German, Japanese and Korean POWs. These were American civilians who were arrested and considered "potentially dangerous 'enemy aliens,'" according to archives. In addition to offering training to thousands of soldiers annually, some military mobilize at Fort McCoy before deployment.ĭuring World War II, what was then known as Camp McCoy, became a Japanese, German and Italian internment camp. Almost 15,000 Cubans lived there in the summer and fall of 1980.įort McCoy was built in 1909 in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area. ![]() ![]() military installations that housed Cuban refugees after the Mariel Boatlift. ![]()
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