Army-ish orders from Camp James A. Garfield. Kinda.
The recent tour of Camp James A. Garfield (As one participant commented during a Q&A session :” Anybody raised around here will probably refer to it as ‘the Arsenal’ until the end of our days.”) was interesting…enlightening…engaging for likely all of the folks gawking out the windows of the buses carrying them through the heavily-forested (plenty of wildlife as well) reserve. Lotsa grass too, opening up to firing ranges, buried explosives magazines (no smoking, right?) no longer in use, various abandoned structures, new buildings–barracks, mess halls, lockerroom-type facilities etc. Millions have been invested in C–JAG (That’s military terminology)to make this a multi-purpose, top-of-the-line operation which can be used by a broad spectrum of personnel, mostly from all over the eastern U.S., not just Ohio. There are military units and individuals coming here to learn and to sharpen skills and to qualify for specialized areas of military expertise.
Each of the buses had a tour guide, so to speak, pointing out areas of usage, former features–Cobb’s Pond, Wadsworth Arch Bridge, Smalley Rd for instance–which were not readily visible without prior knowledge; one was a military man, a colonel or something, the other was what seemed to be a high-ranking civilian involved with the day-to-day operation and supplying of C–JAG. They had plenty to say and even knew some of the history of when “the Arsenal” was established and why. It seems that–contrary to local belief–the Arsenal was located here for three main reasons : plenty of available (non-forested) cheap farmland, two proximal railroad lines, an available labor force–from Akron, Warren, Youngstown, etc. Probably the cloud cover did not hurt but it was not the prime mover in this decision. Oh well.
There are some quirks to be noted. First of all, there are three kinds of grass at C–JAG; they have nothing to do with the variety of the green stuff but with what government entity has to mow it, either, the U.S. government (That’s the Army) or the State of Ohio (That’s the Ohio National Guard which also trains there) or the actual on-base (county?)personnel. Probably all goes back to who’s paying for it. Bus passengers might also have noticed that almost all of the trees to be seen out of the bus windows were about the same age–seldom any big ol’ giants. Well, why not? The previous farmland had been cleared for crops and the building of the facilities themselves necessitated removing anything else that was in the way; everything new came in at about the same time. Speaking of being “in the way”, our guides mentioned at one firing range stop that they tried to avoid scheduling certain live-fire activities on some ranges during nesting season, so as to not upend that natural process in and around some local small wetlands.
Many thanks to the tour guides(ours told jokes too ), to the intrepid bus drivers (They are used to more unruly passengers) and to the Freedom Historical Society (Judy Thornton, mover & shaker) which made the arrangements and issued the invitations as part of their ongoing presentation of programs of historical interest.
As the Ohio Historical Society (now titled “Ohio History Connections”)always says : “History Matters”.
