Camp Wallace (La Marque, Texas)

USA / Texas / Hitchcock / La Marque, Texas
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An article in the September 6, 2000 University of Houston Daily Cougar newspaper indicates that Camp Wallace, TX, now the UH Coastal Center, comprised 1603 acres. From the assumed boundaries of the present day Coastal Center, the boundaries enclosed by this polygon encompass approximately this acreage. Per the article, the roads and other "infrastructure" of the original camp can still be seen in this satellite photo.

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Camp Wallace, Galveston County, was designed as a training center for antiaircraft units in World War II. It was formally opened on February 1, 1941, and named for Col. Elmer J. Wallace of the Fifty-ninth Coast Artillery, who was fatally wounded in the Meuse-Argonne offensive of 1918. For two years Camp Wallace served as an antiaircraft replacement training center. On April 15, 1944, the camp was officially transferred to the United States Navy as a naval training and distribution center and was used as a boot camp. After the war it became the Naval Personnel Separation Center. It was declared surplus in 1946.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: David G. McComb, Galveston: A History (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986). Texas Almanac, 1945-46, 1947-48.
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Coordinates:   29°22'32"N   95°2'27"W

Comments

  • My dad was stationed at Camp Wallace in 1941. I still have a copy of the Thanksgiving menu for the Battery C mess hall.
  • My Uncle, Edward L. Frost was stationed there during the war where he told me he guarded German prisoners of war. Leo Long
  • My dad was there. Would love to get a copy of the menu for his scrapbook, Thank you
  • The Veterans Support Coalition of Galveston County maintains a Veterans Memorial there, and are building a Veterans Ceremonial Area that we will hold veteran functions at such at during Memorial Weekend. It will also be the first Boy Scout Camping Site on the mainland in Galveston County.....Any information you have on the former base, or if you want to attend one of our functions and share your stories, let us know...thanks
  • My dad was at Wallace. Was in the battle of the buldge , 3rd army with general Patton. Anti aircraft. Bless him and all those great men of the 3rd army
  • My grandpap, Carl Metzgar, and his best friend, "Tim" Emil Dulovich, were stationed there in 1942. Tim is the last survivor of their Gun Battalion #214. I just celebrated his 95th birthday with him, which he shared with my grandpap. God bless the greatest generation! Jacquie
  • My grandfather, Walter H. Ogden, was an artillery commander at Wallace. At the same time, he had a house on the curve on S. Shepherd in Houston where my dad lived while attending Lamar High School.
  • My grandfather was also there in 1941. I have the battery B thanksgiving menu!
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This article was last modified 11 years ago