Camp Dodge: Home Away from Home 1917-1918

Following the U.S. entry into World War I the War Department undertook the task of raising, training, equipping and arming a force large enough to successfully contribute the Allied war effort. Camp Dodge, Iowa, was selected as one of 16 training camps for draftee soldiers. The small Iowa National Guard camp was expanded into the largest military base in Iowa’s history. the upper Midwest.

With a PowerPoint slide show presentation, viewers will learn how, from September 1917 through November 1918, 37,111 Iowa draftees left cities, towns and farms to become soldiers during the First World War. Period images, maps, letters, and data will detail how many of many of these Iowans left home for the first time. For these Iowans and other inductees from the upper Midwest, Camp Dodge became their new “Home Away from Home.”