Fort Eustis is a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

installation in

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the U ...

. In 2010, it was combined with nearby

Langley Air Force Base Langley Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Hampton, Virginia, adjacent to Newport News. It was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1 ...

to form Joint Base Langley–Eustis. The post is the home to the

United States Army Training and Doctrine Command The United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) is a major command of the United States Army headquartered at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It is charged with overseeing training of Army forces and the development of operational doctrine. ...

, the U.S. Army Aviation Logistics School, the 7th Transportation Brigade, an
Joint Task Force - Civil Support
Other significant tenants include the Army Center for Initial Military Training (USACIMT), Army Training Support Center (ATSC), the

Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate The United States Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) is a tenant activity located at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It is a directorate of the Aviation Development Directorate under the Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and ...

(AATD) and Enterprise Multimedia Center (EMC). At Fort Eustis and Fort Story, officers and enlisted soldiers receive education and on-the-job training in all modes of transportation, aviation maintenance, logistics and deployment doctrine and research. The headquarters of the Army Transportation Corps was at Fort Eustis until 2010 when it moved to Fort Lee. In accordance with the 2005 BRAC legislation, the administration of Fort Eustis was passed to the

633d Air Base Wing The United States Air Force's 633rd Air Base Wing is the host organization for Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. Its headquarters are at Langley Air Force Base. The unification of support for Langley and Fort Eustis was directed by the ...

(USAF). The 733d Mission Support Group manages the installation's garrison operations.

History

Mulberry Island

Much of the low-lying land along the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesap ...

which now constitutes Fort Eustis was known in colonial times as

Mulberry Island Mulberry Island is located along the James River in the city of Newport News, Virginia, in southeastern Virginia at the confluence of the Warwick River on the Virginia Peninsula. History Mulberry Island, settled shortly after Jamestown, wa ...

, and was first settled by English colonists shortly after Jamestown was established in 1607. An important event in Virginia's history occurred in the James River off Mulberry Island in the summer of 1610. Survivors of the ill-fated

Third Supply The Jamestown supply missions were a series of fleets (or sometimes individual ships) from 1607 to around 1611 that were dispatched from England by the London Company (also known as the Virginia Company of London) with the specific goal of initially ...

mission from England and the

Starving Time The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia was a period of starvation during the winter of 1609–1610. There were about 500 Jamestown residents at the beginning of the winter. However, there were only 61 people still alive when the ...

in the Colony had boarded ships intent on abandoning the floundering

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertGilbert (Saunders Family), Sir Humphrey" (histor ...

and were met off Mulberry Point by

Lord Delaware Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr ( ; 9 July 1577 – 7 June 1618), was an English merchant and politician, for whom the bay, the river, and, consequently, a Native American people and U.S. state, all later called "Delaware", were named. He was ...

with a fleet of ships headed upriver bringing supplies from England and a fresh determination to stay. He literally turned the situation around by convincing the colonists, who had just abandoned Jamestown, to turn their ships around and go back to colonizing in the area, rather than return to England. Phettiplace (Peter) Clouse was one of the early colonists. Born in Bremen, Germany in 1593, he came to Jamestown, Virginia in 1608 at the age of 15. He sailed upon the English ship Starr from London working as an indentured servant for his passage to the English Colony in America. In 1619, he was granted 100 acres of land on the east bank of the Warwick River (Warwicksqueake River) on Mulberry Island by Sir George Yardley, Colonial Governor of Virginia. Part of his land grant today is presumed to be land occupied by military housing, a golf course and firing ranges at Fort Eustis. Phettiplace Clouse survived the Indian Massacre of 22 March 1622, as he was listed among the living on the Jamestown Colony muster of 16 February 1623. As a landowner, he was a member of the House of Burgess, Jamestown, Virginia Colony and recorded in attendance 16 October 1629, representing Mulberry Island along with another owner, Thomas Harwood. Among those who almost left was

John Rolfe John Rolfe (1585 – March 1622) was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia in 1611. Biography John Rolfe is believed ...

, who had departed England with his wife and child in 1609, with some very promising seeds for a different strain of tobacco which he hoped would prove more favorable to export from Virginia than had been the experience to date. He had been shipwrecked on

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...

in the

Sea Venture ''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual ...

, lost his wife and child by this time, but still had the untried seeds. The turning point at Mulberry Island delivered Lord Delaware and businessman-farmer John Rolfe, two very different men, back to Jamestown, where they and the others were to find new success. Lord Delaware's skills and resources combined with Rolfe's new strain of tobacco to provide the colony with effective leadership structure as the new cash crop began financial stabilization by 1612. By 1614, Rolfe owned an interest in a tobacco plantation. That same year, he became the husband of

Pocahontas Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, known as Matoaka, 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of ...

. For the next 300 years, Mulberry Island remained very rural, until it was bought by the Federal Government in 1918.

American Civil War: The Warwick Line

During the Peninsula Campaign of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

in 1862,

Fort Crafford Fort Crafford is a historic archaeological site located at Fort Eustis, Newport News, Virginia. It is a pentagonal-shaped earthwork located on Mulberry Island and built by Confederate forces in 1862. The earthworks on Mulberry Island are consid ...

on Mulberry Island anchored the southern end of the

Warwick Line The Warwick Line (also known as the Warwick–Yorktown line) was a defensive works across the Virginia Peninsula maintained along the Warwick River by Confederate General John B. Magruder against much larger Union forces under General George B. ...

, a line of Confederate defensive works across the

Virginia Peninsula The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the ''Lower Peninsula'' to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the n ...

extending to Yorktown on the north at the York River.

World War I: Camp Abraham Eustis

On 7 March 1918, the Army bought Mulberry Island and the surrounding land for $538,000 as part of the military build-up for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Approximately 200 residents were relocated, many to the Jefferson Park area nearby in Warwick County. Camp Abraham Eustis was established as a

coast artillery replacement center The United States Replacement and School Command was a training and receiving formation of the United States Army during World War II. History It was established as part of the Army Ground Forces in March 1942, after it was noted that div ...

for

Fort Monroe Fort Monroe, managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Park Service as the Fort Monroe National Monument, and the City of Hampton, is a former military installation in Hampton, Virgi ...

and a balloon observation school. It was named for Brevet Brigadier General

Abraham Eustis Abraham Eustis (March 26, 1786 – June 27, 1843) was a lawyer and notable U.S. Army officer, eventually rising to become a Brevet Brigadier General. He saw service in Florida and became a notable artillery specialist and the first commander o ...

, a 19th-century U.S. military leader who had been the first commanding officer of

, a defensive fortification at the mouth of

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic ...

about east at

Old Point Comfort Old Point Comfort is a point of land located in the independent city of Hampton, Virginia. Previously known as Point Comfort, it lies at the extreme tip of the Virginia Peninsula at the mouth of Hampton Roads in the United States. It was renamed ...

in what is now the city of

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

Camp Wallace

A few miles upstream along the

, a satellite facility,

Camp Wallace Camp Wallace was a facility of the United States Army located near the unincorporated town of Grove in southeastern James City County in the Virginia Peninsula portion of the Hampton Roads region of Virginia in the United States. Camp Wallace ...

, was established in 1918 as the Upper Firing Range of for artillery training. Consisting of 30 barracks, six storehouses, and eight mess halls. Camp Wallace included some rugged terrain and bluffs overlooking the river. It was the site of

anti-aircraft warfare Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

training during

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Many years later, the Army's

aerial tramway An aerial tramway, sky tram, cable car, ropeway, aerial tram, telepherique, or seilbahn is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion. With this form of lift, the grip ...

was first erected at Camp Wallace and later moved to Fort Eustis near the Reserve Fleet for further testing. The purpose of the tramway was to provide cargo movement from ship-to-shore, shore-to-ship, and overland. The tramway supplemented beach and pier operations, used unloading points deemed unusable due to inadequate or non-navigable waters, or to traverse land that was otherwise impassable. In 1971, the U.S. Army agreed to a land swap with

Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV ( AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...

in return for a larger parcel which is located directly across

Skiffe's Creek Skiffe's Creek is located in James City County and the independent city of Newport News in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. It is a tributary of the James River. Early history ...

from Fort Eustis. Along with land previously owned by

Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has 7300 employees at this location ...

, the former Camp Wallace land became part of a massive development.

1923: Camp becomes Fort Eustis

Camp Abraham Eustis became Fort Eustis and a permanent military installation in 1923. In 1925

Eustis National Forest Eustis National Forest was established in Virginia by the U.S. Forest Service on April 10, 1925 with from part of the Fort Eustis Military Reservation. On December 2, 1927 the executive order for its creation was rescinded and the forest was abol ...

was established on the installation. The post was garrisoned by artillery and infantry units until 1931, when it became a federal prison, primarily for bootleggers during

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholi ...

. The repeal of Prohibition resulted in a prisoner decline and the post was taken over by various other military and non-military activities including a WPA camp that utilized some of the barracks on the post during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

World War II, modern times

Fort Eustis was reopened as a military installation in August 1940 as the

Coast Artillery Replacement Training Center The United States Replacement and School Command was a training and receiving formation of the United States Army during World War II. History It was established as part of the Army Ground Forces in March 1942, after it was noted that div ...

. In 1943, the Caribbean Regiment of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

was formed there. In 1946, Fort Eustis became home to the newly formed Transportation School which moved from New Orleans. Training in

rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...

, marine, amphibious operations and other modes of transportation was consolidated at Fort Eustis. The

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 ...

directives from the U.S. Congress, resulted in the U.S. Army Transportation School and Center moving to Fort Lee, Va. In 2010, Fort Eustis was merged with nearby

Joint Base Langley-Eustis A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw ...

and its former sub-installation Fort Story was re-aligned as a Naval installation. Joint Base Langley Eustis gained the

U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command The United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) is a major command of the United States Army headquartered at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It is charged with overseeing training of Army forces and the development of operational doctrine. ...

after the closure of

Ghost Fleet

A portion of the

U.S. Maritime Administration The United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation. MARAD administers financial programs to develop, promote, and operate the U.S. Maritime Service and the U.S. Merchant Marine. Det ...

's National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) is anchored in the James River adjacent to Mulberry Island. Known locally as the Ghost Fleet, some of these inactive ships have become too old and deteriorated to ever be reactivated and have become environmental hazards, as they still hold fuel oil and other hazardous substances. Since the start of the 21st century many of these ships, some dating back to the World War II era have been removed under contracts with scrapping companies.

Transportation Corps Regiment

On 31 July 1986, the Transportation Corps celebrated its 44th Anniversary. This was also the day the Transportation Corps was inducted into the U.S. Army Regimental System. The activation of the Regiment marked the redesignation of several Transportation Corps training commands. The redesignation provided a link with renowned transportation units of the past. The Training Brigade was reflagged the 8th Transportation Brigade, honoring the 8th Transportation Group in Vietnam. The 8th Transportation Group enjoyed an outstanding reputation in Vietnam for its support of numerous tactical operations and for the development of the "gun truck," a highly armored 5-ton truck usually sporting multiple M2 .50 caliber machine guns. The 2nd Battalion, Training Brigade, was reflagged as the 71st Transportation Battalion. The 2nd Battalion, 5th Training Brigade, Fort Dix, was reflagged as the 36th Transportation Battalion. The 5th Battalion, 4th Training Brigade, Fort Leonard Wood was reflagged as the 58th Transportation Battalion. These units were reflagged as part of the Army's parent regiment system. The regimental crest is inscribed with the Corps motto—Spearhead of Logistics—to symbolize a soldier's affiliation with the Transportation Corps. Upon completion of the Transportation Officer Basic Course, officers are automatically inducted into the Corps, Warrant Officers' are inducted upon completion of the Warrant Officer Candidate Course and enlisted soldiers are inducted upon completion of Advanced Individual Training. Major General Fred E. Elam, the first Regimental Commander, named General Frank S. Besson, Jr. as the first honorary Colonel of the Regiment (posthumously) in honor of his lifelong service to the Transportation Corps.

U.S. Army transportation museum

The

U.S. Army Transportation Museum The U.S. Army Transportation Museum is a United States Army museum of vehicles and other transportation-related equipment and memorabilia. It is located on the grounds of Fort Eustis, Virginia, in Newport News, on the Virginia Peninsula. History ...

, a museum of U.S. Army vehicles and other transportation related equipment, and

memorabilia A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a ...

, is located on the grounds of Fort Eustis.

Gallery

File:USAX1811EUSTIS.jpg, The 1811 was built for the U.S. Army by EMD. It is an

EMD MRS-1 The EMD MRS-1 is a type of diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division for the United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) in 1952. They were built with multigauge trucks and to a narrow loading gauge for serv ...

class locomotive that has adjustable

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

to run in Europe and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. Now it belongs to the museum at Fort Eustis, but sits abandoned in Hanks Yard. File:USAX1811.JPG,

class locomotive that has adjustable

, recently painted. File:USAXB1663.jpg, USA 1663, a

GE 80-ton switcher The GE 80-ton switcher is a diesel-electric locomotive model built by GE Transportation Systems. It is classified as a B-B type locomotive. It was designed for industrial and light switching duties around railheads and ports. Military version ...

, is known as the "

tow truck A tow truck (also called a wrecker, a breakdown truck, recovery vehicle or a breakdown lorry) is a truck used to move disabled, improperly parked, impounded, or otherwise indisposed motor vehicles. This may involve recovering a vehicle damaged ...

" for its frequent retrieval of the other locomotives on post. File:C7Caribou Fort Eustis 2008.JPG, C-7 Caribou. File:Skycrane001.jpg, CH-54A (H54A) Tarhe "Sky Crane" File:Flyingjeep.jpg, VZ-8P-2 Flying Jeep developed by Piasecki in 1962 File:Cyberneticwalkingmachine.jpg, CYBERNETIC WALKING MACHINE Built by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

Corp in 1970. It was designed for transporting up to 500 pounds of cargo over extremely difficult terrain. File:H-19 and H-34 helicopter of HT-8 in flight.jpg, H-34 at Felker Army Airfield.

Current units

The following units are stationed at Fort Eustis: *

* 128th Aviation Brigade (US Army Aviation Logistics School) * 7th Transportation Brigade * 53rd Transportation Battalion (Movement Control) * 567th Transportation Company (Inland Cargo Transfer) * Installation Management Command, Atlantic * Army Center for Initial Military Training *

Army Training Support Center Fort Eustis is a United States Army installation in Newport News, Virginia. In 2010, it was combined with nearby Langley Air Force Base to form Joint Base Langley–Eustis. The post is the home to the United States Army Training and Doctrine Co ...

*Enterprise Multimedia Center *

* 597th Transportation Brigade *

* 12th Military Police Detachment (CID) * 93rd Signal Brigade (Strategic) * 362nd Training Squadron, Detachment 1 Air Force Helicopter Technical School * Joint Deployment Training Center * NCO Academy (Aviation Branch ALC) * US Army Flight Concepts Division * McDonald Army Community Hospital * 221st Military Police Detachment * 3rd Military Police Detachment (K9) * 74th Engineer Detachment (Dive) * 86th Engineer Detachment (Dive) * 511th Engineer Detachment (Dive) * 569th Engineer Detachment (Dive) *

Port Security Unit United States Coast Guard Port Security Units are deployable specialized units organized for sustained force protection operations. They can deploy within 96 hours and establish operations within 24 hours of arrival. PSUs conduct OCONUS port secu ...

305

References

External links

Fort Eustis Wheel ''the military-authorized newspaper''

Fort Eustis homepage
– official site.
Fort Eustis Installation Overview
fro
ArmyUSA.org
{{authority control Eustis Training installations of the United States Army Eustis Buildings and structures in Newport News, Virginia Populated places on the James River (Virginia) Military logistics installations of the United States Military ports Superfund sites in Virginia Military Superfund sites 1918 establishments in Virginia Military installations established in 1918