Camp Swift Facilities



The People at the Camp

More than 300,000 men and women trained at Camp Swift from 1942 through 1946. Five divisions were stationed there:Total camp capacity was 45,000 troops at a time.


Railroads and Utilities

A gas transmission pipe ran through the camp near the warehouse area. Electric power was purchased from the LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority). Railroad service was furnished by the MK and T Railroad, which adjoined the camp on the west.

The Camp Hospital

The camp hospital was the most modern in the area. It was so large that it had seven cafeterias. It also had the only army graduate nurse combat training program in Texas with a total of 980 nurses graduating from it.


For the Men

The post office on the camp employed 65 civilian workers who worked 10 to 12 hours a day in order to keep up with the volume of mail. During the holidays, it handled up to three boxcars of mail a day.

Camp Swift's laundry and bakery were so large that they provided service for Bergstrom Army Air Corps Base in Austin, as well as for their own soldiers. Soldiers pay $1.50 a month for all personal laundry.

There was a fire department of civilians and a grocery store, which did $500,000 of business each year. The stores are conveniently located and there equipment include soda fountains, refreshment bars, lunch counters, and barber and tailor shops. There were five swimming pools on the site, which cost $25,000 each to build. The pools were used to teach soldiers life-saving skills.

For entertainment at the camp, there were several movie theaters built that provide motion pictures every night. Only the latest and best movies are shown. It cost 12 to 15 cents to see the latest pictures. There was also a weekly camp newspaper called the Camp Swift Baron.


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