Fort MacArthur

Fort MacArthur, in San Pedro, became the Army's major regional induction center after Pearl Harbor, processing over three-quarters of a million soldiers into World War II. Named for Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, a Civil War hero, military visionary, and father of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, "Fort Mac" began as a remote military reservation in 1888, was a full-fledged Coast Defense fort by 1923, a blur of GI activity as a portal to all theaters during World War II, a reserve base in 1946, a Nike missile installation in 1954, and again a military reserve base in 1976 following the Vietnam War. The base also played an important role in transforming San Pedro into the Port of Los Angeles, in implementing changes in military technology, in racial integration of the Army in the late 1930s, and in labor history as its soldiers became strikebreakers in the tense early days of the Second World War. The fort's museum, comprising 20 acres above the harbor, is a lasting reminder of the 20th century's vital West Coast national defense facilities.

Co-authors Stephen R. Nelson, the museum's director/curator, and Lt. Col. David K. Appel, a member of the museum's board of directors, collaborated to gather and assemble more than 200 vintage photographs from the museum's archive into this fascinating and evocative tour.