For the past five years, Camp Atterbury has been home to the Individual Readiness Deployment Operation Program, processing over 400 contractors a week since 2010. This past week Camp Atterbury and the IRDO staff received its final flight of civilian contractors for the redeployment process.
Camp Atterbury, located in Edinburgh, Indiana, began as a mobilization platform in 1941 with the purchase by the Army of over 700 family farms and five rural communities in Central Indiana. Atterbury rose from the once-fertile farmland to prepare troops for service in World War II. Divisions and units from across the country, all of them with specialties ranging from artillery to engineering to tank battalions and chemical companies, arrived at Atterbury for basic and advanced training that would prepare them for service overseas.
Camp Atterbury trained more than 275,000 troops and housed various facilities that supported the war effort, including: Wakeman General Hospital, a pioneer in plastic and neurological surgery; and a Prisoner of War internment camp that housed 15,000 Italian and German POWs from 1943 to 1946.
The installation served as a premier training site through periods of conflict to support the nation’s needs until 1969 when the Indiana National Guard assumed operational oversight. From the 1970s through the 1990s the primary mission was to support US Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers in various missions to support conflicts in Vietnam, Desert Shield, and Desert Storm.
Immediately following the events of September 11, 2001, Camp Atterbury again stepped forward to become a mobilization platform in support of the Nation's defense mobilizing more than 195,000 personnel from the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines and Navy, with theater-specific training and validation of all medical requirements from 2001-2013.
“At the same time the troop mobilizations were going on at Camp Atterbury we were asked to assume the role of the civilian mobilization platform in 2010,” said Lt. Col. David Ellis, Director for IRDO.
The IRDO program trained, equipped, and medically validated civilian contractors with the Non-Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) encompassing more than 600 different agencies deploying to every combatant command around the globe. “We built a platform that was world renowned for the service and support offered by applying Hoosier values,” said Capt. Matthew Limeberry, IRDO Operations Officer.
The IRDO program served as the nation's civilian contractor Deployment Center of Excellence at Atterbury-Muscatatuck from 2010-2014. The success of the program was a result of the close partnerships between the Indiana National Guard, Camp Atterbury, IRDO, First U.S. Army and other U.S. Army Forces Command assets. Together they ensured that all deploying and redeploying personnel were provided the utmost in timely and theater specific training, support and accommodations.
Retired Sgt. Maj. Gina Owens, IRDO Program Manager said, “All went above and beyond to ensure the needs of the IRDO customer were exceeded. This included working weekends and holidays, if it took ten hours to process the IRDO customers, our employees worked ten hours.”
Camp Atterbury has since completed processing of more than 70,000 Non-LOGCAP personnel in support of requirements in every theater of operation and employed more than 300 contractors and Soldiers at its peak of the program. “Atterbury took a platform that raised the importance and credibility of deploying contractors across the globe. The chapter was successful and will be bittersweet to end, but it will ultimately help Atterbury continue to write the story of being a world-class platform for future markets and Department of Defense requirements,” said Limeberry.
As a result of the conclusion of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan the reduced demand for mobilization affected the mobilization effort at Atterbury. In consultation with senior military leaders it was determined the continuation of the IRDO program would be best served by consolidating with other mobilization efforts located at Ft. Bliss, Texas.
“Camp Atterbury has served the nation well in this latest effort and stands by, prepared to serve the State and Nation's defense requirements yet to be determined. Atterbury has been hardened with sweat, steel, fire and conflict to become a gem to be proud of,” said Ellis. Ellis continued to say, “The current IRDO mobilization mission is ending at Atterbury, but the infrastructure established here and the training completed solidified Atterbury-Muscatatuck as the platform that can get it done no matter the complexity or size.”
While Camp Atterbury is a tremendous asset as a training center the greatest value are the men and women of Central Indiana who served as the cadre to operate it for the last 73 years. It could be stated that though training areas and buildings exist in other locations, no one else has the quality of personnel who joined together to create the longest running period of success in Atterbury's history. While this chapter closes, the book of Atterbury is far from written.
