Stik's Workshop

[Stikpusher]

After spending time on the east side of the Red River at Ft Polk, Houston was not bad at all… lol! And California west of the desert felt almost cold in July/August by comparison… and compared to the Mohave desert in summer, well it was the proverbial dry heat as opposed to the swamps & bayous

"Tigerland"? My cousin Thomas had a lot to say about basic training there...

In all my years there, I never saw the “Tigerland” facility. Or if I did, there was no way to recognize any of it. And we traipsed over so much of that post. I wonder if they tore it all down after the war ended and there was no longer a need for it.

[Gary Brantley]

Carlos, your reply made me do some research. This is from Wikipedia:

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.[7] The Combat Engineer Battalion of the 588th lived on North Fort Polk, Louisiana.


So, I guess it was mostly all gone by the time you arrived. That didn't change the heat and humidity though, did it? Or do away with those "wait a minute vines" and "don't f*ck with me bushes". Sounds like fun!!

[Stikpusher]

Nope, the Army didn't do anything about the vegetation... North Fort was especially lush... doing patrols on a moonless night in some areas of the post was like walking in a blacked out steamroom. You couldn't see the cat eyes on the guy in front of you's headgear more than 1m-2m. That is if you didn't have some brush in your face. And those wait a minute vines were still quite plentiful! Along with poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, and all sorts of nasty flying or creepy crawly critters. What a place!