Camp Toccoa was a United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 paratrooper

Paratrooper

Paratroopers are soldiers trained in parachuting and generally operate as part of an airborne force.Paratroopers are used for tactical advantage as they can be inserted into the battlefield from the air, thereby allowing them to be positioned in areas not accessible by land...

 training camp during World War II 5 miles (8 km) west of Toccoa, Georgia

Toccoa, Georgia

Toccoa is a city in Stephens County, Georgia, United States located approximately from Athens and approximately northeast of Atlanta. The population was 9,323 at the 2000 census...

. It was first planned in 1938, constructed by the Georgia National Guard

Georgia National Guard

The Georgia National Guard is the National Guard of the U.S state of Georgia consists of the Georgia Army National Guard and the Georgia Air National Guard...

 and the Works Projects Administration beginning 17 January 1940, and was dedicated 14 December 1940. The U.S. Army took over the site in 1942.

World War II

The U.S. Army took over a site with few buildings or permanent structures: personnel were originally housed in tents. More permanent barracks were built as the first soldiers started to arrive.

Initially, Camp Toccoa used the Toccoa municipal airport for jump training, but following to a transport accident, it was abandoned for having too short a runway for safe C-39

Douglas DC-2

The Douglas DC-2 was a 14-seat, twin-engine airliner produced by the American company Douglas Aircraft Corporation starting in 1934. It competed with the Boeing 247...

 and C-47

C-47 Skytrain

The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota is a military transport aircraft that was developed from the Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line operations through the 1950s with a few remaining in operation to this day.-Design and...

 operations. All further jump training occurred at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Camp Toccoa also lacked a rifle range, so airborne trainees would march 30 miles (48.3 km) to Clemson Agricultural College

Clemson University

Clemson University is an American public, coeducational, land-grant, sea-grant, research university located in Clemson, South Carolina, United States....

, a military school in South Carolina, to practice on the college's shooting range.

The most prominent local landmark is Currahee Mountain. Paratroopers in training ran from the camp up the mountain and back, memorialized in the HBO series, Band of Brothers, with the shout "three miles up, three miles down." Members of the 506th refer to themselves as "Currahees", derived from the Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 word gurahiyi, which means "stand alone". The crest is surmounted by a group of telecommunications towers.

After WWII

The camp closed at the end of the war. In the late 1940s, it served as a Georgia State Prison site, housing primarily youthful offenders, but several escapes forced the state to close the site, moving the operation to a new facility at Alto, Georgia

Alto, Georgia

Alto is a town in Banks and Habersham Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population was 876 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Alto is located at ....

. The twisting trail up Currahee is now named for Colonel Sink. The only remaining building from the camp is the mess hall, which sits on a corner of a Milliken & Company textile plant. The Patterson Pump Company occupies another portion of the grounds.

Units trained at Toccoa

• 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment
  501st Parachute Infantry Regiment
  The 501st Airborne Infantry Regiment is the first Airborne unit in the United States Military. It has been assigned to the 4th Brigade Combat Team , 25th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, and is located in Fort Richardson, Alaska, to serve as a strategic front to the Department of Defense's Pacific...
  
   (501st PIR): attached to the 101st Airborne Division
  101st Airborne Division
  The 101st Airborne Division—the "Screaming Eagles"—is a U.S. Army modular light infantry division trained for air assault operations. During World War II, it was renowned for its role in Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, in Normandy, France, Operation Market Garden, the...
  
  
• 506th PIR: attached to the 101st Airborne Division
• 507th PIR
  507th Infantry Regiment
  During World War II, the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment was a regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division and, later, 17th Airborne Division of the United States Army.The regiment was initially formed at Camp Toccoa, Georgia on 20 July 1942...
  
  : attached to the 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. 17th Airborne Division
  U.S. 17th Airborne Division
  The 17th Airborne Division was an airborne unit in the United States Army during World War II, and was commanded by Major General William M. Miley. It was officially activated as an airborne division in April 1943 but was not immediately shipped out to a combat theater, remaining in the United...
  
  
• 511th PIR: attached to the 11th Airborne Division
• 517th PIR
  517th Parachute Infantry Regiment
  During World War II, the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment was a separate infantry regiment of the United States Army, at times attached to the 17th Airborne Division, 82nd Airborne Division and later, the 13th Airborne Division....
  
  : attached to the 17th Airborne Division and the U.S. 13th Airborne Division
• 457th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion: attached to the 11th Airborne Division
• 295th Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Company (FA): completed basic training at Camp Toccoa, from July 21, 1943 through November 24, 1943.

Name change

The facility was initially named Camp General Robert Toombs

Robert Toombs

Robert Augustus Toombs was an American political leader, United States Senator from Georgia, 1st Secretary of State of the Confederacy, and a Confederate general in the Civil War.-Early life:...

 after a Confederate

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 General.

The story goes that Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 Robert Sink

Robert Sink

Lieutenant General Robert Frederick Sink was a United States Army officer during World War II, the Korean War, and early parts of the Vietnam War, though he was most famous for his command of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division...

, commander of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, one of the first units to train there, thought that it would prompt superstition

Superstition

Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....

s to have young men arrive at Toccoa, travel Route 13 past the Toccoa Casket Company to learn to jump at Camp "Tombs", so he persuaded the Department of the Army to change the name to Camp Toccoa