U.S. Army Installations - World War II: A Research Reference: Sixth Service Command: Volume 6

During WWII, the U.S. Army divided the nation into 9 administrative zones, Service Commands. This book provides a comprehensive background on those installations in the Sixth Service Command (IL, MI, WI). Included are descriptions of each station, their mission, and history. Included also are appendices which identify each unit to serve at each installation during the reporting periods documented by the Office of the Adjutant General.The installations include: those for the Army Ground Forces, the Army Air Forces, the Army Service Forces, and the POW camps.

Mr. Leonard lived as a young boy at the estate of the Commanding General of Camp Atterbury in central Indiana. Just down the road a very short distance was the POW camp where his mother and he would pick strawberries alongside the German POWs. For a young boy this was an extraordinary opportunity to watch paratroop drops in the field across from the house, tanks roll down the road in front of their gate and “play Army” with actual weapons rather than sticks to which many boys would have to resort. Following his Master’s degree and doctoral work Mr. Leonard worked as the Director of the Transit Planning program in Chicago, then as the Director of the Transportation Planning program in Los Angeles before redirecting his efforts to become the Chief Deputy County Supervisor for the Fifth Supervisorial District of Los Angeles County where his sole responsibility was to serve as the single point of planning and design, public involvement, “political persuasion”, and ballot drafting for a public referendum for funding a rail transit system in Los Angeles. Although three prior referenda had failed, this referendum passed and has been building a light rail, rail rapid transit, and commuter rail system since 1980. Although he worked for a couple of the largest architecture / engineering firms following his work in government, he initiated his own consulting practice in 1981. After twenty years of operating this successful practice which focused on solving the parking and transportation issues for college and university campuses, he retired and began writing. Although this series of books was initiated in 2002, its magnitude has taken this long to produce the first in a series of ten books to be released - one for each of the 10 Service Commands operated as a management structure for the Army during World War II. Mr. Leonard and his wife who has been instrumental in the research and documentation of the findings in this series live on the beach in southern California (when they’re not traveling about looking up existing and already-closed army forts, camps, POW camps, air bases and the rest of what defines the “stations” that were the U.S. Army Installations - World War II: A Research Reference.