Camp Kearns: Documents offer new glimpse into life at dismantled WWII base

"Within its boundaries are the largest rifle range in the West, second largest in the nation, and Utah's second largest hospital. It has one of the largest dental installations in the United States with the finest of modern equipment — and when it was started, patients sat on a barrel to be treated ...

"Today we have the necessary facilities to carry on the business of training soldiers to outfight, outshoot, outmaneuver and out-think our enemies," the history said. "Everywhere they are taking the best the enemy can offer, and the enemy is finding that his best cannot equal the hard fighting Kearnsmen."

The base had four fire stations, five chapels, three theaters, two large gymnasiums, 16 mess halls, at least five Post Exchange stores, a huge warehouse complex and two big service clubs (one for whites and one for "colored personnel").

Modern pioneers

Histories say life at Kearns was rough at first.

"It is another tale of pioneering in the West," a base history says. "It was a dusty, desert land aggravated by puffing steam shovels, road plows and thousands of trucks.

"Dust flew about thickly, covering soldiers from head to foot with grime and grit. It filtered into barracks and rolled around in the bottom of mess kits. At times the dust clouds were so thick that trucks and automobiles were forced to drive with headlights on in broad daylight."

The post was soon named Army Air Forces Base, Kearns, Utah, in honor of former Republican U.S. Sen. Thomas Kearns. Pam Todd, founder of the Kearns Historical Society, said the base had as many as 16 official name changes, but it was usually simply called "Camp Kearns" by most people.

More than 90,000 airmen would complete basic training at the base before it had a major change of mission in late 1943, being transferred to the 2nd Air Force to house many of its technical schools (although basic and replacement training continued on a smaller scale).

Histories show that among schools based there were: navigation, intelligence, cryptography, radio, ordnance, chemical warfare, armament, clerical, camouflage, telephone switchboard operation, teletype and quartermaster.

For residents now living where the old base was, that chemical warfare school could raise concerns about contamination. While records obtained mention shipments of tens of thousands of gas masks and other protective gear, they do not specifically mention shipment or use of chemical weapons.

Records do talk about construction of a "gas chamber" and conducting training exercises within it. A latrine building was converted into a "decontamination building." And records talk about a chemical range for training on how to use masks and detection equipment.