| Camp Mills Aviation Concentration Center | |
|---|---|
| Near Hempstead, Long Island, New York | |
 Encampment of National Guard soldiers at Camp Mills, New York training for service in World War I | |
 Location of Camp Mills. Note location of Hazelhurst Field and Aviation Field #2, later becoming Mitchel Field | |
| Coordinates | 40°43′28″N 73°36′38″W / 40.72444°N 73.61056°W |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1917 |
Camp Mills was a military installation on Long Island, New York. It was located about ten miles from the eastern boundary of New York City on the Hempstead Plains near Garden City. It was named in honor of Major General Albert L. Mills, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry during the Spanish-American War.
History
The mission of Camp Mills was initially the preparation of Army units prior to their deployment to Europe in World War I. It was established as temporary tent camp in September 1917 as a place to mobilize the 42nd Division, made up of National Guard units from various states. After the 42d left for the Western Front in France, the 41st Division followed, occupying the camp from October to November 1917. It was then ordered to be abandoned, but reestablished April 4, 1918, as a part of the Port of Embarkation at Hoboken, New Jersey.
It then was expanded to accommodate thousands of troops, who arrived from training camps across the United States. At Camp Mills, the units waited until they could be scheduled at one of the Ports of Embarkation and loaded onto troop ships for the crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean, primarily to the ports of Liverpool, England, or Brest, France. The Air Service referred to Camp Mills as the Aviation Concentration Center.
A very large number of American soldiers shipped out to France from Camp Mills: Douglas MacArthur, Wild Bill Donovan, Joyce Kilmer and Father Duffy among them. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a soldier at Camp Mills.
With the end of World War I in November 1917, Camp Mills then performed a mission to process the thousands of troops back into the United States as a demobilization center. Many returning units passed though it and were either demobilized or sent to other camps across the United States where the men were processed out of the Army and returned to civilian life.
With the last troops returning from Europe during the summer of 1919, the camp was ordered to be abandoned and sold, although operations continued until March 31, 1920, when garrison troops were transferred elsewhere. In 1938 Camp Mills was incorporated into Mitchel Field as part of an Air Corps expansion.
Today, Camp Mills is a part of the urban community of Hempstead and is totally unrecognizable. A monument to the Rainbow Division {42nd) at St James Street and Rainbow Place in Garden City near the site of Camp Mills was restored and then rededicated on November 11, 2004.
References
- Swanson, Robert Domestic United States Military Facilities of the First World War 1917-1919