Camp Glenn

Camp Glenn was on the west side of the fort, and just right and through a wooded area from where we are now. It was a training area for Fort Ben soldiers, and later served as a site for the post-World War I Civilian Military Training Corps (CMTC) program. You can access the site inside the State Park . CMTC cadets would come each summer for four years and at the end of this period were awarded a reserve officer commission in the Army.

When World War II broke out, this area was converted to a prisoner of war camp, and by 1943 was one of several sites in Indiana receiving and housing German and Italian POWs. The POWs were put to work doing maintenance around the base.

May 1944 rolled around, and 300 proud German prisoners arrived at the fort. German prisoners who came to Fort Ben were members of Rommel’s Afrika Corps. When they arrived, most were still wearing the uniforms they were captured in. Germans were put to work doing maintenance jobs and working in the kitchen. During a task to repair the roof of the canteen, the prisoners separated two shades of shingles and organized them in the shape of a swastika on the roof. When discovered by American officers, the Germans were called back for a do-over. Other than that, “records indicate the Germans were pretty well behaved.”

Perhaps the most dramatic story about Fort Harrison relates to an event that occurred in 1945. In late 1944, a Midwestern branch of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks was established at the post in the former reception center to house hundreds of American servicemen convicted of various offenses by the military court system. By June 1945, about 2,700 men were incarcerated there, all performing work and receiving vocational training. On the evening of May 31, 1945, a riot started at the prison with prisoners throwing rocks at the electric lights and at prison guards. Two separate fires broke out. Prisoners rushed the barbed wire fences surrounding the compound. Prison guards fired machine gun bursts at the feet of the rioters. After four and a half hours, the prison guards regained control of the situation. Two men were found dead: an Indianapolis fire fighter died of a heart attack and a prison guard was fatally wounded by ricocheting machine gun fire. Three prisoners had bullet wounds. The fire destroyed nine buildings, and the flames could be seen for ten miles.

All civilian vehicles were searched for loose prisoners trying to escape. The driver of a milk truck failed to honor the roadblock and accelerated his truck past the security guards. One guard turned his Thompson submachine gun on the truck, perforating the side of the tanker and causing milk to spew out the bullet holes, emptying most of the driver’s load. The whole event became a public relations nightmare for the Army in the local Indianapolis community which had not been very happy when the disciplinary barracks first opened. To appease the local Chamber of Commerce, the Army agreed to move part of the Disciplinary Barracks.