The Camp Mills site marker that was formally dedicated on Memorial Day was recently installed in its permanent location on Commercial Avenue just east of Clinton Road and Rainbow Park.

The marker indicates where the front gate to Camp Mills existed from 1917-1922. Camp Mills was a WW I training base for many of the troops who were sent to France. Camp Mills was also the home base for the famous 42nd Rainbow Division. Besides being one of the first divisions sent to France, it had such luminaries as General Douglas MacArthur, Major Wild Bill Donovan (later founder of the OSS-now the CIA), Father Duffy (whose statue adorns Times Square), the poet Joyce Kilmer (Trees) who was killed in action, Charles Ames (who was heir to one of America's great fortunes - the Ames Shovel), Frank McCoy (later in charge of the Nicaragua expedition).

Besides these troops, Captain Harry Truman (later president) came through Camp Mills as did Major Willard Straight, for whom the Cornell University Student Center is named after, who died just after the war from the Spanish influenza. This same influenza killed many at Camp Mills in 1918-19, including a considerable number of German prisoners of war who were incarcerated at Camp Mills after US troops departed.

Garden City resident Bill Bellmer has been instrumental in both obtaining the NY State Historical Marker and the National Archives original map of Camp Mills. Village Clerk Brian Ridgway coordinated both the Memorial Day dedication and the installation for the village. The American Legion and Kyle Bradford Smith also assisted in this worthy task.

Camp Mills utilized the Clinton Road railroad station (which is now a firehouse) for bringing in troops and supplies. It was bounded by Mitchel Field (named after a New York City mayor who died in a flight training exercise in WW I), Old Country Road, Hempstead Turnpike, Clinton Road and what is now Meadowbrook Parkway. It was a huge base and some photos of it, even letters from troops stationed there mentioning how with a pass they could visit "the nice town with the beautiful homes" adjacent to the base, can be viewed at www.hempsteadplains.com.

At first a tent city, it soon had wood barracks and even brick headquarters, theaters and other facilities. Firing ranges, obstacle courses and all the other aspects of an Army base were there. In some parts of eastern Garden City, some residents have extra top soil that was trucked in so German POWs could grow their own vegetables and potatoes.

For many of our soldiers, Garden City was the last piece of America they saw. Almost 3,000 soldiers of the 42nd Rainbow were killed and some 14,000 wounded in their year in the trenches.

The hit 1940's movie, The Fighting 69th, which portrays the Rainbow Division, has its opening scene of troops marching into Camp Mills. Of course, residents can see the Hollywood set aspect insofar as the troops are passing mountains!