Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
World War II POW Camp Comes to Life
by Jay Ermis - Telegram Staff Writer
Temple Daily Telegram - October 18, 2013
HEARNE: World War II history comes alive for the fourth year during the World War II Living History event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Camp Hearne Historic site, FM 485 and Fairground Road in Hearne.
For the 2013 production, “World War II vintage aircraft and vehicles will be featured during ‘A Day in the Life ...’ living history event,” said Melissa Freeman, program director at the Camp Hearne site.
“Some 60 years after the U.S. Air Force’s Hearne Field was formally dedicated as an auxiliary landing strip to the Bryan Air Force Base, Hearne Municipal will be celebrating recent efforts to better serve the general aviation needs of Hearne, Robertson County, the Brazos Valley and Central Texas,” said Cathy Lazarus, president of the sponsoring ROLL CALL — Friends of Camp Hearne.
“For an airfield that hasn’t changed much since Cold War fighter pilots shot landings there from 1954 to 1961, the upcoming celebration is the culmination of a multi-year effort under which Hearne officials have been working to get millions of dollars for airport improvements from numerous Texas Department of Transportation Aviation grants, federal monies, and Hearne’s 4A Sales Tax Board,” Lazarus said.
A brief ribbon-cutting will be held at noon when a skydiver jump is scheduled, Lazarus said .
The special celebration is being held in conjunction with the Hearne living history event, which is bringing the “Yellow Rose” vintage WWII B-25J Mitchell Bomber, the “Bluebonnet Belle” vintage WWII Skytrain Transport and P51 Mustang.
Information about buying once-in-a-lifetime rides on these planes is available at hearnetexas.info or camphearne.com.
“While a ride on a WWII plane will cost a couple of hundred bucks,” Lazarus said, “it doesn’t cost anything to look at them since there is no general admission charge.
Food and drinks are available free of charge to AvGAS purchasers with receipts and for modest donations from other pilots, passengers, and the general public.”
The B-25 Mitchell medium range bomber was the preferred aircraft used by Col. Jimmy Doolittle for the first U.S. strike against Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
From 1996 to 2012, the Hearne airport received $1,603,015 in funding for Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) and $76,886 in Routine Airport Maintenance (RAMP) grant funding. Over this period, Texas contributed $697,458 in state funds; the FAA kicked in $736,834 in federal funds; the city of Hearne contributed $168,723 as its match. Both the city and state have split the cost of RAMP projects at $38,443 apiece.
Camp Hearne, a WWII prisoner-of-war base camp located on FM 485 northwest of Hearne, Texas, has been regarded as the best documented POW camp in the U.S.
“Many folks simply do not realize almost 435,000 German, Italian and Japanese prisoners were held in the U.S. POW camps during WWII,” Freeman said. “Camp Hearne, where more than 4,700 mostly German prisoners were detained, is the perfect historic site to tell this story.”
“To begin our re-creation, a 1942 barrack replica was built on the historic site using original U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans and vintage photographs,” Freeman said.
“The building’s first room recreates the living quarters both our men in uniform and our POWs had on most military base camps during WWII.
“The middle room houses an extensive exhibit of POW a tifacts and objects. The back room is a visitor center for meetings and discussion. We have our signature structure of any POW camp - a 1942 guard tower.
“What is even more exciting is the completion of our airport renovations that will allow us to welcome vintage aircraft,” Lazarus said.
“Hearne’s Cold War airport was built as an auxiliary landing strip to Bryan’s Air Force Base. It now sports an improved lighted runway plus resurfaced taxiways, an air weather observation system (AWOS), a 1950s style pilot’s lounge and a new 24/7 auto-ated fuel farm with AV-gas.
We are now in the process of installing a perimeter fence scheduled to be completed by our event.”
The concrete foundations of POW and camp theaters remain. The camp covered 70 acres of the 720-acre complex, which housed more than 250 buildings. A model of the camp is located in the exhibit area.
Camp Hearne opened in early 1943 and by October 1943, Camp Hearne’s roster was 4,700 POWs, dropping to 3,600 in November 1945 and down to 2,100 when it closed in December 1945. It was decommissioned as a U.S. Army camp in January 1946.
“Former Camp Hearne POW Heino Erichsen of The Woodlands will be on hand to tell his story as a young man growing up in Adolph Hitler’s Germany,” Freeman said.
Lazarus said Erichsen was captured and brought to Camp Hearne where he shared where he shared a barrack with Hugo Strauss, a POW murdered at the facility for his failure to honor the Reich.
For information, contact Lazarus or Freeman at 979-314-7012. The camp is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
jermis@tdtnews.com
.
by Jay Ermis - Telegram Staff Writer
Temple Daily Telegram - October 18, 2013
HEARNE: World War II history comes alive for the fourth year during the World War II Living History event from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Camp Hearne Historic site, FM 485 and Fairground Road in Hearne.
For the 2013 production, “World War II vintage aircraft and vehicles will be featured during ‘A Day in the Life ...’ living history event,” said Melissa Freeman, program director at the Camp Hearne site.
“Some 60 years after the U.S. Air Force’s Hearne Field was formally dedicated as an auxiliary landing strip to the Bryan Air Force Base, Hearne Municipal will be celebrating recent efforts to better serve the general aviation needs of Hearne, Robertson County, the Brazos Valley and Central Texas,” said Cathy Lazarus, president of the sponsoring ROLL CALL — Friends of Camp Hearne.
“For an airfield that hasn’t changed much since Cold War fighter pilots shot landings there from 1954 to 1961, the upcoming celebration is the culmination of a multi-year effort under which Hearne officials have been working to get millions of dollars for airport improvements from numerous Texas Department of Transportation Aviation grants, federal monies, and Hearne’s 4A Sales Tax Board,” Lazarus said.
A brief ribbon-cutting will be held at noon when a skydiver jump is scheduled, Lazarus said .
The special celebration is being held in conjunction with the Hearne living history event, which is bringing the “Yellow Rose” vintage WWII B-25J Mitchell Bomber, the “Bluebonnet Belle” vintage WWII Skytrain Transport and P51 Mustang.
Information about buying once-in-a-lifetime rides on these planes is available at hearnetexas.info or camphearne.com.
“While a ride on a WWII plane will cost a couple of hundred bucks,” Lazarus said, “it doesn’t cost anything to look at them since there is no general admission charge.
Food and drinks are available free of charge to AvGAS purchasers with receipts and for modest donations from other pilots, passengers, and the general public.”
The B-25 Mitchell medium range bomber was the preferred aircraft used by Col. Jimmy Doolittle for the first U.S. strike against Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
From 1996 to 2012, the Hearne airport received $1,603,015 in funding for Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) and $76,886 in Routine Airport Maintenance (RAMP) grant funding. Over this period, Texas contributed $697,458 in state funds; the FAA kicked in $736,834 in federal funds; the city of Hearne contributed $168,723 as its match. Both the city and state have split the cost of RAMP projects at $38,443 apiece.
Camp Hearne, a WWII prisoner-of-war base camp located on FM 485 northwest of Hearne, Texas, has been regarded as the best documented POW camp in the U.S.
“Many folks simply do not realize almost 435,000 German, Italian and Japanese prisoners were held in the U.S. POW camps during WWII,” Freeman said. “Camp Hearne, where more than 4,700 mostly German prisoners were detained, is the perfect historic site to tell this story.”
“To begin our re-creation, a 1942 barrack replica was built on the historic site using original U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans and vintage photographs,” Freeman said.
“The building’s first room recreates the living quarters both our men in uniform and our POWs had on most military base camps during WWII.
“The middle room houses an extensive exhibit of POW a tifacts and objects. The back room is a visitor center for meetings and discussion. We have our signature structure of any POW camp - a 1942 guard tower.
“What is even more exciting is the completion of our airport renovations that will allow us to welcome vintage aircraft,” Lazarus said.
“Hearne’s Cold War airport was built as an auxiliary landing strip to Bryan’s Air Force Base. It now sports an improved lighted runway plus resurfaced taxiways, an air weather observation system (AWOS), a 1950s style pilot’s lounge and a new 24/7 auto-ated fuel farm with AV-gas.
We are now in the process of installing a perimeter fence scheduled to be completed by our event.”
The concrete foundations of POW and camp theaters remain. The camp covered 70 acres of the 720-acre complex, which housed more than 250 buildings. A model of the camp is located in the exhibit area.
Camp Hearne opened in early 1943 and by October 1943, Camp Hearne’s roster was 4,700 POWs, dropping to 3,600 in November 1945 and down to 2,100 when it closed in December 1945. It was decommissioned as a U.S. Army camp in January 1946.
“Former Camp Hearne POW Heino Erichsen of The Woodlands will be on hand to tell his story as a young man growing up in Adolph Hitler’s Germany,” Freeman said.
Lazarus said Erichsen was captured and brought to Camp Hearne where he shared where he shared a barrack with Hugo Strauss, a POW murdered at the facility for his failure to honor the Reich.
For information, contact Lazarus or Freeman at 979-314-7012. The camp is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
jermis@tdtnews.com
.
All Credit for this article
goes to Jay Ermis
and the
Temple Daily Telegram
goes to Jay Ermis
and the
Temple Daily Telegram
A German World War II reenactor riding a Kleines Kettenkraftrad HK101, one of many vehicles which will be on display next week Wednesday thru Saturday.
This year is the fourth year that Camp Hearne wil take visitors back to the 1940s and the era of World War II.
Photo by Jay Ermis - TDT
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