Description

The following periodic announcement issued by Fort Sheridan is descriptive of the Post’s major contribution to the Second World War. . . . “Antiaircraft fire will create a danger zone on Lake Michigan within a radius of 12 miles of Fort Sheridan and upwards (aloft) for six miles. Air and lake craft should avoid this area.” Here, in an ideal setting for such training, gun crews of the Coast Artillery specialize in antiaircraft gunnery. They are trained in the intricacies of range finding, gun emplacements and the rapid handling of the most modern and powerful antiaircraft guns. Their completion of this course will fit them to assume the protection of allied installations throughout the World. Another of the major activities at the post is the processing of recruits from Wisconsin and some induction board districts of northern Illinois in Fort Sheridan’s Recruit Reception Center. There “rookies” are issued uniforms for the first time and inoculated against disease before moving to training centers. In addition the post has two schools – one for cooks, bakers and mess sergeants and the other, the Ordnance Automotive School, where soldiers learn motor maintenance of all wheeled vehicles. Civil disorders in the city of Chicago were responsible for the establishment of the venerable army post on the north shore of Lake Michigan. Following violence accompanying the nation-wide rail road strike of 1877 and the Haymarket riot of 1886, a group of citizens of Chicago and the North Shore presented to the government 632.5 acres in Lake County, Ill. It was accepted by the War Department Nov. 19, 1887. During the first World War, the post was an officers training camp. Later it became a general hospital. Infantry and cavalry have trained here but since 1924 it has been a training center for antiaircraft units of the Coast Artillery.