Parks Reserve Forces Training Area (PRFTA), commonly known as Camp Parks, is a
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
base located in
Dublin, California, that is currently an active military and training center for
U.S. Army Reserve
The United States Army Reserve (USAR) is a reserve force of the United States Army. Together, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard constitute the Army element of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces.
Since July 20 ...
personnel to be used in case of war or natural disaster.
History
World War II
Soon after the creation of the
Seabees at the beginning of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
built a West Coast replacement and recuperation center for Naval Construction Battalions returning from overseas. Camp Parks was established on 26 November 1942, having been named in honor of
Rear Admiral Charles W. Parks,
Civil Engineer Corps
The Civil Engineer Corps (CEC) is a staff corps of the United States Navy. CEC officers are professional engineers and architects, acquisitions specialists, and Seabee Combat Warfare Officers who qualify within Seabee units. They are responsibl ...
(CEC), the
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
chief of the
Bureau of Yards and Docks
The Bureau of Yards and Docks (abbrev.: BuDocks) was the branch of the United States Navy responsible from 1842 to 1966 for building and maintaining navy yards, drydocks, and other facilities relating to ship construction, maintenance, and repair. ...
.
Adjacent to Camp Parks to the east, was Camp Shoemaker and the U.S. Naval Hospital Shoemaker, also built during the war. The three Navy bases located side by side were called "Fleet City." In April 1945 over 20,000 troops were on the three bases. Seabee had 71 battalions sent through Camp Parks during the war. U.S. Naval Hospital Shoemaker at its peak had 3,031 Seabee patients. The hospital closed in 1946. Camp Shoemaker had a disciplinary barracks for up to 2,097, the men had both work duties and recreational activities. The confined men built cargo nets and wooden pallets for the Navy. The base football team was called the
Fleet City Bluejackets.
In 1945, on its huge paved parade ground, Camp Parks could muster more than 20,000 men and hundreds of officers. It was the home for Seabee battalions returning from the Pacific Theater of Operations after a year or more of construction duty. They came to Camp Parks for medical treatment, military training and reorganization. The base housed up to 20 battalions at a time. Most battalions prepared for a second tour in the Pacific. Many Seabees were hospitalized, and those no longer fit for duty received their discharge. After their initial leaves, personnel were given training and battalions were returned to fighting strength.
In 1946, at the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the
United States Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
disestablished the three facilities, and from 1946 to 1951, the Navy leased much of the land to the County of
Alameda
An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to:
Places Canada
*Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan
**Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan
Chile
...
for use as
Santa Rita Jail
Santa Rita Jail is a county jail located in Dublin, Alameda County, California, and operated by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. With a design capacity of 3489, Santa Rita is one of the largest prisons in the United States and larger than m ...
. Thousands of Quonset huts and barracks and other buildings were subsequently dismantled through sales conducted by the War Assets Administration.
Cold War
Camp Parks sat unused until the United States Air Force established it as a basic training center in 1951 during the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, and renamed the facility Parks Air Force Base. The Air Force almost completely rebuilt the base. Base personnel were initially housed in temporary facilities and ate from a field mess. The first group of airmen arrived at Camp Parks in the summer of 1951, and mass training began in March 1952 as the 3275th Air Indoctrination Wing. In 1953, Air Base Defense classes started as the Air Force transitioned the base defense mission from the Army. The Air Force first terminated basic training and then reinstated it that year, all in response to Defense Department budget problems. In 1956, base operations started to change as basic training and the Air Base Defense School moved to
Lackland Air Force Base
Lackland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located in Bexar County, Texas. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 802d Mission Support Group, Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and an enclave of the city of S ...
. It is estimated about 6,800 recruits graduated from basic training at Parks AFB between 1951 and 1956.The base transitioned from an
Air Training Command facility to a
Continental Air Command
Continental Air Command (ConAC) (1948–1968) was a Major Command of the United States Air Force (USAF) responsible primarily for administering the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.
During the Korean War, ConAC provided the necessary augm ...
installation. In January 1957, the 2349th Air Base Wing and the 2349th Personnel Processing Group started operations as part of the Fourth Air Force. The nearby regional Air Force hospital changed its designation at that time, too. Personnel processing continued as the primary base operation until 1959 when the base closed.
Parks Air Force Base was notable as one of the few air force bases without a functional runway on site.
In July 1959, the installation was transferred to the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
. From 1959 to 1973, it was operated in a standby status under the jurisdiction of the
U.S. Sixth Army
Sixth Army is a theater army of the United States Army. The Army service component command of United States Southern Command, its area of responsibility includes 31 countries and 15 areas of special sovereignty in Central and South America and ...
,
Presidio of San Francisco.
In June 1965, U.S.
Coast Guard Squadron One
Coast Guard Squadron One, also known in official message traffic as COGARDRON ONE or RONONE, was a combat unit formed by the United States Coast Guard in 1965 for service during the Vietnam War. Placed under the operational control of the Unit ...
used the range facilities for small arms training in preparation for deployment to
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. Training was completed with pistols, rifles and machine guns under the auspices of the U.S. Navy.
[Larzelere, pp 18–19]
In 1973, the U.S. Army determined that Camp Parks was needed as a mobilization and training center for Reserve Components in the event of war or natural disaster. On 11 December 1980, the Army designated Camp Parks as a semi-active installation, renaming it Parks Reserve Forces Training Area.
Radiation experiments
From 1959 to 1983, tests were conducted at Camp Parks to determine the effects of radiation on crops and livestock. Various experiments included growing crops in plutonium-enriched soil, exposing sheep to the radioactive isotope
cobalt-60
Cobalt-60 (60Co) is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of 5.2713 years. It is produced artificially in nuclear reactors. Deliberate industrial production depends on neutron activation of bulk samples of the monoisot ...
, simulating the effects of radiation on ship hulls, exposing an abandoned complex to sand containing lanthanum-140, and exposing dogs to damaging gamma rays.
All radioactive material was disposed of on site and some areas were later closed off.
Concerns have been raised about the safety of these experiments. James L. Thomas, a former radiation safety officer at Camp Parks, said, "They wouldn’t be allowed to do that today. It would never be approved. Never."
[ In 1994, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found forty-six cases showing evidence of radiation experiments on humans, which included at least one experiment at Camp Parks.
However, there has been dispute over these concerns. A 2014 inspection of a small area of Camp Parks found that "there is no evidence that radioactive material or sources were stored or used on the property." Dr. John Ainsworth, former scientific director at Camp Parks, said that there was little controversy over their studies at the time.][ James Sartor, project manager of several experiments at Camp Parks, said, "There’s no danger in what we did. There were no human guinea pigs involved in any of the experiments."][
In a project titled Bombs in Your Backyard, ]ProPublica
ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...
found that the Camp Parks site contained "hazardous, toxic, and radioactive waste."
Current mission
Parks has a primary mission of exercising the functions of command, training, security, administration, servicing and supply to all troop units, military activities and other governmental agencies assigned or attached.
New and state-of-the-art training facilities have been built and more are planned. In the garrison area are administrative and classroom buildings, upgraded housing, a remodeled dining facility, a modern lodging facility, an informative history center, and other support and training facilities.
Parks RFTA is the only local training facility for more than 11,000 Army Reserve Soldiers in the San Francisco Bay Area where a wide variety of training facilities are available. Reserve Units permanently stationed at Parks RFTA conduct weekend inactive duty training throughout the year, and Reserve Component units travel to the base for their two-week annual training.
The base also hosts the Federal Correctional Institute, Dublin
The Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin (FCI Dublin) is a low-security United States federal prison for female inmates in Dublin, California. The facility also has an adjacent satellite prison camp housing minimum-security female offender ...
, and is adjacent to Santa Rita Jail
Santa Rita Jail is a county jail located in Dublin, Alameda County, California, and operated by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. With a design capacity of 3489, Santa Rita is one of the largest prisons in the United States and larger than m ...
.
Assigned units
* 91st Division (Training Support) – headquarters and various units.
* 104th Division (IT): 4th Bde CSS; 6th Bn PSS; 9th Bn PN/HS
*Regional Training Site-Medical
*Equipment Concentration Site (ECS30) / Area Maintenance Support Activity (AMSA)
*Western Army Reserve Intelligence Support Center (WARISC)
*Navy Seabees ( NMCB 18, Detachment 2718)
*Company B, 319th Signal Battalion
*Company B, 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment (Air Assault)
*Western Information Operations Center (WIOC)
*352nd Field Hospital
*820th Hospital Center
* 368th Military Intelligence Battalion
* 191st Army Band
Future changes
In its 2005 Base Realignment and Closure
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) is a process by a United States federal government commission to increase United States Department of Defense efficiency by coordinating the realignment and closure of military installations following the end ...
recommendations, the Department of Defense recommended relocating the 91st Division to Fort Hunter Liggett
Fort Hunter Liggett is a United States Army fort in Jolon, California, in southern Monterey County, California. The fort, named in 1941 after General Hunter Liggett, is primarily used as a training facility, where activities such as field maneuve ...
.
File:Seabees.png, United States Navy Seabees emblem
File:Wh-usaaftc.jpg, USAF Air Training Command emblem (1950s)
File:2349th Personnel Processing Group - Parks AFB - California - 1950s.png, Emblem of the USAF 2439th Personnel Processing Group
File:US Sixth Army patch.svg, United States Sixth Army emblem
See also
*California during World War II
California during World War II was a major contributor to the World War II effort. California's long Pacific Ocean coastline provided the support needed for the Pacific War. California also supported the war in Europe. After the Japanese attac ...
*American Theater (1939–1945)
The American Theater was a theater of operations during World War II including all continental American territory, and extending into the ocean.
Owing to North and South America's geographical separation from the central theaters of ...
* United States home front during World War II
Notes
;Citations
;References used
*
External links
Parks Air Force Base, California Basic Training Flights 286 – 293, Summer 1956
Camp Parks Radiation Facility from 1950's
{{CAMilitary, state=autocollapse
Buildings and structures in Alameda County, California
Training installations of the United States Navy
Training installations of the United States Army
Installations of the United States Army in California
Dublin, California
Military in the San Francisco Bay Area
Military installations established in 1943
1943 establishments in California