In 3 days, on June 13th, Fort Polk in Louisiana becomes Fort Johnson.

[Solly Mack]

Sgt. William Henry Johnson, a World War I Medal of Honor recipient and one of the first Americans to receive the French Croix de Guerre avec Palme, France's highest award for valor, served in the 369th Infantry Regiment, also known as the "Harlem Hellfighters".


Sgt. Johnson died in 1929 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

[grumpyduck]

1. Ah, Ft. Polk. I remember it well.

Basic training Feb - Apr '72. D-3-2. SSG Turner was our Drill Sergeant.

I was working the chow line once, serving pea soup. This guy asks me what kind of soup it was. I took one look at him and said "Army soup." He says, "What??" I said "Army soup. It's green, isn't it?"

Ah, the memories...

[Solly Mack]

2. Love it!

For me, the best part about Fort Johnson is the wildlife. I'm glad the name is being changed but it's still where the back of beyond goes in search of solitude.

The army dumped us here after nearly a decade in Germany. I didn't experience culture shock in Germany. Not once. But I did when I got here.

[grumpyduck]

3. Yeah, the wildlife.

A wild boar chased a guy up a tree during a field exercise.

[Solly Mack]

4. I've been half-heartedly chased by a gator.

He wasn't into it. He darted at me, stopped, croaked, went back to the water.

I'd have been insulted but it was a win.

[grumpyduck]

5. "I'd have been insulted..."

LOL.

[Ron Green]

6. I'm really happy about this name change.

I was at Polk in 1966 as a trainee and then as permanent party, and again in ‘68 in the hospital.

It was named for Leonidas Polk, a particularly racist clergyman in the Confederacy. He suffered a somewhat gruesome death, killed by a U.S. cannonball.

[Solly Mack]

7. I am too. Long overdue.

[Aristus]

8. "Good ole Fort Puke", as my Dad used to call it.

For better or worse, Polk was the location of my family's shortest stay on any of the Army posts where my Dad was stationed during his career.

Right around a year and a half; whereas we lived at my Dad's other duty stations for usually three years at a time.

Since I was only four years old or so, I have no real bad memories of the place. But my Dad liked to joke that he woke up one morning to find a cockroach trying on his combat boots.

[Solly Mack]

9. The Palmetto bugs here are all airborne and behave like it too.