The city of Colorado Springs was eager to have an Army camp near it. The city purchased the mile-high Cheyenne Valley Ranch of 5,500 acres, which was five miles south, and sold it to the government for $1.
Construction started in February 1942 and was completed in October. The new GIs started arriving in July. I was in a group arriving by troop train from Jefferson Barracks in Missouri, near St. Louis, the second week of July. I was 22.
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