Jackson men's club learns history of Fort Dix BY DAVE BENJAMIN Staff Writer One of the weapons on display at the Fort Dix museum is this Soviet ZPU-1 heavy machine gun (14.5 MM) which was captured from an Iraqi emplacement on the roof of a hotel in Kuwait during the 1990-91 Gulf War. More than 50 members of the Four Seasons at Metedeconk Men's Association of Jackson learned about the history of Fort Dix on a recent tour of the fort's museum. The historic U.S. Army installation encompasses 50 square miles and touches seven municipalities in Ocean and Burlington counties. "I think the museum provided quite a historical perspective of the history of Fort Dix," said Hal Wohl, the trip's organizer. "I was interested in the story about Gen. John Adams Dix." The Fort Dix museum has military uniforms, weapons, equipment and memorabilia on display. "The paraphernalia from the different wars was also very interesting," Wohl said, "but the saddest part for me was reading the memorial plaque that was in the room with the [captured] Czechoslovakian machine gun." Wohl said the plaque he was referring to told about two career soldiers and how their lives changed when they decided to go and volunteer for another tour of duty in Vietnam. Residents of the Four Seasons at Metedeconk, Jackson, examine some of the weaponry that is on display at the Fort Dix museum. "Of course, they never made it back," said Wohl. "It was a sad story. " Tour guide Daniel Zimmer-man presented a history of the fort. "As a result of World War I, Gen. John Pershing said he need one million men," Zimmerman explained. "A month later he said he needed three million men. The Army didn't have a place to train one million men, let alone three million." Zimmerman said the largest organization on active duty in 1917 was about the size of a regiment. He said the Army decided to establish 16 new camps and Camp Dix in southern New Jersey was one of those new camps. "When they were naming the 16 Army camps they were named for Civil War generals," said Zimmerman. "I guess we didn't have any in New Jersey. So they chose Dix." PHOTOS BY DAVE BENJAMIN Daniel Zimmerman discusses the history of Fort Dix during a tour of the U.S. Army facility by members of the Four Seasons at Metedeconk Men's Association of Jackson. John Adams Dix was born July 24, 1798. He joined the Army at the age of 14 and fought in the infantry in the War of 1812. While in the Army he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1824. Dix married Catherine Morgan, the daughter of New York politician John J. Morgan, in 1826. By 1828 he reached the rank of major and resigned his commission, returning to civilian life and living in Cooperstown, N.Y. From 1830-60, Dix served as New York state adjutant General, New York secretary of state and U.S. senator from New York. He eventually became the first president of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1863. Dix became secretary of the Treasury in 1861 under President Abraham Lincoln and became a major general of volunteers during the Civil War. President Andrew Johnson appointed Dix as Minister to France in 1866 and after returning to New York he was elected governor of the state in 1872. Dix was defeated for re-election in 1874 and he spent his last years writing travel books. He died in April 1879. In 1917 the Army training camp in New Jersey was named Camp Dix and later was renamed Fort Dix in honor of the service Dix gave to his country. Zimmerman explained that Camp Dix had two-story barracks which were made from green wood and had no insulation. Some of the buildings collapsed from the wood, which bent, cracked and split. "There were tents all over the place because Camp Dix was built to house 40,000 soldiers," Zimmerman told the visitors. "There were 50,000 soldiers there. At one point there were 55,000 soldiers and 15,000 were living in tents." Zimmerman said at one point 950 soldiers died at Camp Dix due to influenza, which was not uncommon in Army camps during the period between the first and second world wars. Uniforms from different periods in the history of Fort Dix were displayed. Zimmerman explained how enlisted men were issued equipment, but that officers had to buy equipment such as a saddle for an Army issued horse. Fort Dix was also a training camp for horses and mules, Zimmerman said. "They had to get them used to working with a lot of people, to the smell of gas, to artillery exploding and to rifle shots whizzing nearby," he explained. "In fact there were horse gas masks." Tens of thousands of horses were trained at the base during World War I before being shipped to Europe, where 70 percent of them were killed, mostly by artillery, he said. In 1938 Camp Dix, a temporary installation, became Fort Dix, a permanent military base. "They started improving Fort Dix in anticipation of the war that was coming," he said. Zimmerman touched on other topics, including a narrow gauge railroad that was built in 1922 to transport troops; the Civilian Conservation Corps, started in 1930 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to give unemployed Americans a job; and a 1935 telephone switchboard that was used at Fort Dix until 1995; and the Fort Dix Army Air Force base and runways which later became McGuire Air Force Base. Zimmerman also covered Fort Dix during 1943 when the fort became a cargo facility and two hospitals were added. Uniforms, weapons and supplies were also explained by Zimmerman during the period of the Korean War, the Vietnam War and periods of conflict leading up to and including Afghanistan and Iraq. Members of the men's association related stories of their own and of their relatives who returned from different theaters of battle to Fort Dix after World War II and other wars, while some recalled their own experiences at the fort. Steve Caplain said Zimmerman's discussion of the fort and the memorabilia were both impressive. "I found the story about John Adams Dix very meaningful," he said. "I was never there before, so for me it was the first time. From a historical perspective I found it very interesting and informative. I liked the anecdotes."