45th Infantry Division at Camp Barkeley
Abilene, Taylor County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The 45th Infantry Division, comprised of National Guard units from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, was one of the first four divisions ordered into federal service by Congress' joint resolution in 1940. Initially stationed at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, the 45th was relocated to Camp Barkeley in early 1941. The "Thunderbirds" found Abilene's citizens welcoming, but Camp Barkeley was as yet little more than a tent city on undrained prairie. The new arrivals nicknamed their quarters "Camp Smokey Okie" and began rigorous training at once. In April 1942 the 45th was ordered to Fort Devens, Massachusetts. After another year of training in three more states they departed for North Africa and Sicily. World War II took the 45th far from Taylor County. They saw fierce combat in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany, culminating in the liberation of the concentration camp at Dachau in April 1945. After 511 days in combat and 3,650 men lost, the 45th Infantry was one of the most distinguished military units of the war. Eight Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to its members, who won the admiration of Allies and Axis powers alike. The division was released from active duty in November 1945. Hundreds of 45th Infantry soldiers came back to Abilene to marry and make their homes, their love for the city recorded in their letters and their lives. The 45th was again called to active duty during the Korean conflict, suffering 834 casualties. One "Thunderbird" was posthumously awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his Korean service. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The 45th Infantry Division — the 'Thunderbirds,' drawn from National Guard units in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma — was among the first divisions called into federal service in 1940 and relocated to Camp Barkeley near Abilene in early 1941. Finding the camp little more than a tent city on undrained prairie, the soldiers nicknamed it 'Camp Smokey Okie' and trained hard before shipping out through North Africa to Europe. Across 511 days of combat in Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany they earned eight Medals of Honor and helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945; the division was recalled for the Korean War, where it suffered further heavy losses.
Why it matters
One of the most decorated American units of World War II, the 45th ties a West Texas training camp to the liberation of Dachau and to the citizen-soldier tradition carried into Korea.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
As the 1930s ended, the United States watched war spread across Europe and Asia and began, reluctantly, to prepare. In 1940 Congress moved to bring National Guard divisions into federal service, and quiet stretches of the country were suddenly turned into training grounds for a coming fight. West Texas, with its room and its weather, became one of them.
Camp Barkeley rose near Abilene almost overnight, and in its early days it was little more than a tent city pitched on undrained prairie. Soldiers arriving from the Southwest found mud, canvas, and hard ground rather than barracks — and, with the dark humor of soldiers everywhere, they gave the place a nickname of their own.
The men who came were the 45th Infantry Division, the "Thunderbirds," drawn from the National Guard of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. They were citizen-soldiers — clerks, farmers, and workers in uniform — and Abilene, to its credit, took them in warmly even as the camp itself was still being wrestled out of the prairie.
People & events
The 45th had first gathered at Fort Sill in Oklahoma before being moved to Camp Barkeley in early 1941. There they trained hard on that raw ground, and the bond between the division and the city of Abilene began to form — a relationship that would outlast the war itself.
In April 1942 the Thunderbirds were ordered east to Massachusetts, and after another year of training across several more states they shipped out for North Africa and Sicily. From there the division was thrown into some of the hardest fighting of the war, campaigning through Sicily, up the Italian peninsula, and on into France and Germany.
That long road reached one of its most solemn moments in April 1945, when the 45th took part in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp. By the war's end the division had spent 511 days in combat and lost 3,650 men, and eight of its soldiers had received the Medal of Honor — a record that earned the respect of allies and enemies alike.
Its place in the American story
The story of the 45th is the story of America's citizen-soldier tradition made concrete. A division built from Guard units in four states was called up, trained on a Texas prairie, and carried across the world to help end the largest war in history. The line that runs from a muddy tent city outside Abilene to the gates of Dachau is one of the most striking journeys any American unit made.
That connection matters because it collapses distance. It is easy to think of the Holocaust and the European war as things that happened far away; the Thunderbirds are a reminder that the men who confronted them had drilled on home soil and would come home again. Many of the liberators of a Nazi camp had learned soldiering within sight of West Texas horizons.
The division's later service in the Korean War, where it suffered hundreds more casualties and earned another Medal of Honor, extends that tradition into a second generation of conflict. The 45th embodies how ordinary American communities supplied, again and again, the soldiers the nation asked for.
If you visit
There is a poignant coda on this marker that's worth carrying with you: hundreds of the division's soldiers came back to Abilene after the war to marry and make their homes, their affection for the city recorded in their letters and their lives. The place they had cursed as "Camp Smokey Okie" became, for many, the place they chose to belong.
Standing at the memorial, look out at the surrounding country and try to see it as a canvas city of tents on undrained ground, full of young men who did not yet know where they were bound. The gap between that ordinary prairie and the extraordinary places these men would go is the whole point of stopping here.
For a traveler, this is a site that rewards a quiet moment rather than a quick photo. It ties a specific patch of Taylor County to the broadest currents of the twentieth century, and it honors soldiers whose war began here and, for many, whose peacetime lives ended here too.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related events
- · World War II
- · Liberation of Dachau (1945)
- · Korean War
Themes & tags
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