Fort Polk, formerly Fort Johnson, is a United States Army installation located in Vernon Parish, Louisiana, about 10 miles (15 km) east of Leesville and 30 miles (50 km) north of DeRidder in Beauregard Parish.
The post encompasses about . Some are owned by the Department of the Army and by the U.S. Forest Service, mostly in the Kisatchie National Forest. In 2013, there were 10,877 troops stationed at Fort Polk, which generated an annual payroll of $980 million. Louisiana officials lobbied the Army and the United States Congress to keep troop strength at full capacity despite looming defense cuts.Lance M. Bacon, "Budget woes may force Army to close bases", The Town Talk, 16 May 2013, p. 1
Fort Polk began as a base for the Louisiana Maneuvers in the 1940s. It served the 1st Armored Division in the 1950s, and became a basic training post during Vietnam War years of the 1960s and '70s. It hosted the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) in the 1970s-1980s, and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in the 1990s and the 1st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, and the 162nd Infantry Brigade in the 2000s. Fort Polk is now home to the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC), the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, 115th Combat Support Hospital, U.S. Army Garrison and Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital.
The land that is now Fort Polk is part of a region of cultural resources, including archaeological sites, historic houses and structures, and other sites of historical value. The U.S. Army has spent considerable time, effort, and money to find and inventory thousands of archaeological sites on Fort Polk and the property owned by the U.S. Forest Service where the Army trains.A Good Home for a Poor Man. Fort Polk and Vernon Parish 1800-1940. Steven D. Smith. 1999. Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management ProgramPorsha Auzenne
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Originally named after Confederate general (and Episcopal Bishop) Leonidas Polk, Fort Polk became Fort Johnson during a re-designation ceremony on June 13, 2023, in honor of Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a World War I Medal of Honor recipient from North Carolina who served in the 369th U.S. Infantry Regiment. In June 2025 it was announced that the fort would be renamed back to Fort Polk in honor of Gen. James H. Polk. The redesignation took effect 11 June 2025.
History 1940s
World War II
Construction of Camp Polk began in 1941. Thousands of wooden barracks sprang up quickly to support an Army preparing to do battle on the North African, European and Pacific fronts. Soldiers at Polk participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers, which were designed to test U.S. troops preparing for World War II.
Until 1939, the Army had mostly been an infantry force with supporting artillery, engineer, and cavalry units. Few units had been motorized or mechanized. As U.S. involvement in World War II became more likely, the Army recognized the need to modernize the service. It also needed large-scale maneuvers to test a fast-growing, inexperienced force. That is where Fort Polk and the Louisiana Maneuvers came in.
The maneuvers involved half a million soldiers in 19 Army divisions, and took place over in August and September 1941. The troops were divided into equal armies of two notional countries: Kotmk (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky) and Almat (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee). These countries were fighting over navigation rights in the Mississippi River. The maneuvers gave Army leadership the chance to test a new doctrine that stressed the need for both mass and mobility. Sixteen armored divisions sprang up during World War II after the lessons learned during the Louisiana Maneuvers were considered. These divisions specialized in moving huge combined-arms mechanized units long distances in combat.
On the defensive front, U.S. doctrine was based on two needs: the ability to defeat Blitzkrieg tactics; and how to deal with large numbers of German tanks attacking relatively narrow areas. As such, the maneuvers also tested the concept of the tank destroyer. In this concept, highly mobile guns were held in reserve until friendly forces were attacked by enemy tanks. Then the tank destroyers would be rapidly deployed to the flanks of the penetration. Tank destroyers employed aggressive, high-speed hit-and-run tactics. The conclusion drawn was that tank destroyer battalions should be raised. Immediately after the war, the battalions were disbanded and the anti-tank role was taken over by the Infantry, Engineer, and Armor branches.A Soldier's Place in History, by Sharyn Kane and Richard Keeton, 2004, Southwest Archeological Center, National Park Service.
German POWs
While primarily a training facility, Camp Polk also served as a military prison for Germans captured during World War II. The first prisoners of war (POWs), who began arriving in Louisiana in July 1943, were from the Afrika Korps, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's troops who fought in North Africa. They were housed in a large fenced-in compound in the area now encompassing Honor Field, Fort Polk's parade ground. Finding themselves captured, transported across the ocean, and imprisoned in the middle of summer was made to hurt their spirits. In his book Up Front, author Bill Mauldin noted that it was more practical to ship prisoners to camps in the U.S. on otherwise empty troop ships returning from the ETO, housing and feeding them in the U.S. where escape was far less likely, rather than further burdening outbound cargo ships with provisions for prisoners in camps based in Europe. He added that American GIs resented the fact that German POWs were allowed to breathe the air in the U.S. while GIs were on the battlegrounds of a devastated Europe through the duration of the war, but they understood the logic of keeping the POWs in the U.S. rather than in Europe.
The POWs picked cotton, cut rice, and cut lumber. They also helped sandbag the raging Red River in the summer of 1944. Prisoners were not forced to work, and some refused. Those who worked earned scrip for their labor, with which they could buy such necessities as toothpaste or snacks at their own Post Exchange.
From the end of World War II until the early 1960s, the post was closed and reopened numerous times. During much of this time, it was open only in the summers to support reserve component training. Soldiers were stationed there temporarily during the Korean War and the Berlin Crisis.
1950s Korea
In August 1950, the 45th Infantry Division of the Oklahoma Army National Guard became the first unit to train at Fort Polk in preparation for the Korean War. During the Korean War the 45th Infantry Division suffered 4,004 casualties; 834 killed in action and 3,170 wounded in action Varhola, Michael J. (2000). Fire and Ice: The Korean War, 1950–1953. Da Capo Press. The division was awarded four campaign streamers and one Presidential Unit Citation.Wilson, John B. (1999). Armies, Corps, Divisions, and Separate Brigades. Department of the Army. ISBN ASIN B000OJKX1S
Most of the units who rotated through Camp Polk during 1952-54 were trained for combat by the 37th Infantry Division of the Ohio Army National Guard. Although the 37th Division itself was not sent to Korea as a unit, nearly every soldier was sent as an individual replacement.
Operation Sagebrush In 1955, the U.S. military conducted another large training exercise that covered a substantial portion of Louisiana. Named Operation Sagebrush, the focus of this exercise was to evaluate the effectiveness of military operations in a nuclear environment. The exercise lasted for 15 days with 85,000 troops participating. A provisional army, meant to represent U.S. forces, was built around the 1st Armored Division and an opposing force was built around the 82nd Airborne Division. U.S. Air Force bombers and fighter planes also participated in this exercise with powerful aircraft operating in the sky, stirring great interest among the citizens of the region. Also participating as part of the provisional army was the 15th Infantry Regiment (actually designated as 15th Infantry Combat Command) of the 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Benning.
1st Armored Division Upon completion of Operation Sagebrush, Polk was declared a permanent installation and the 1st Armored Division was reassigned from Fort Hood to the newly renamed Fort Polk to continue to test mobility and combat strategies for the nuclear age. The 1st Armored Division, with its modern M-48 Patton Tanks and new helicopters, remained at Fort Polk until June 1959, before returning to Fort Hood.
The Department of the Army decided in 1958 to deactivate Fort Polk. An extensive housing construction project, delivering 2,000 dwelling units for the use of military personnel on site, was underway at the time, under a contract previously let by the Corps of Engineers. The construction contract was terminated by the Corps of Engineers on 5 February 1958. Subsequent disputes with the intended contractor and sub-contractor led to the adoption by the US courts of the Christian Doctrine, which held that standard clauses established by regulations may be considered as being incorporated into every Federal contract.U.S. Court of Claims, G. L. Christian and Associates v. the United States, 312 F.2d 418 (Ct. Cl. 1963), accessed on 24 February 2026
1960s–1970s Vietnam In 1962, Fort Polk began converting to both basic training and an advanced individual training (AIT) center. A small portion of Fort Polk is filled with dense, jungle-like vegetation, so this, along with Louisiana's heat, humidity and precipitation (similar to southeast Asia) helped commanders acclimatize new infantry soldiers in preparation for combat in Vietnam. This training area became known as Tigerland. For the next 12 years, more soldiers were shipped to Vietnam from Fort Polk than from any other American training base. For many, Fort Polk was the only stateside Army post they saw before assignment overseas. Many soldiers reported to basic training at Fort Polk and stayed on post for infantry training at Tigerland before being assigned to infantry line companies in Vietnam.
In October 1974, Fort Polk became the new home of the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized), and basic training and AIT started being phased out. Fort Polk changed from a Continental Army Command (CONARC) post in July 1975 and became a Forces Command (FORSCOM) member. In the spring of 1976, the Infantry Training Center at Fort Polk closed its doors and ceased operations. The final chapter of the Vietnam War ended for Fort Polk. The Combat Engineer Battalion of the 588th lived on North Fort Polk, Louisiana.
1970s–1980s