Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

130 THE FIRST 100 YEARS
started at the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia
under the title of “The Ghost Army”. It resulted in the
establishment of the 603 rd Engineers (Camouflage).
The visual deception arm of the Ghost Army was the
603 rd Camouflage Engineers. They started by working
on various types of camouflage that could be a large net
stretched over a field that would have various colors of
cloth laced through it, hoping to make the field resemble
a forest and not the motor pool hidden below. They
were known to paint freshly planted fields and cows
grazing on the roofs of defense plants. They tested here
the inflatable tanks, cannons, jeeps, trucks and airplanes
that the men, once sent to England, would inflate with
air compressors and then camouflage imperfectly so that
enemy air reconnaissance could see them. They created
dummy airfields, troop bivouacs, motor pools, artillery
batteries, and tank formations in a few hours.
Many of the men in this unit were artists, recruited
from New York and Philadelphia art schools, as well as
from the movie industry. Their unit became an incubator
for young artists who sketched and painted their way
across Europe. Several of these soldier-artists went on to
have a major impact on art and design in the post-war US.
Bill Blass, Art Kane, Ellsworth Kelly, and wildlife artist
Arthur Singer, were among the many soldier-artists who
served in the 603 rd .
Army Ground Forces Replacement Depot #1
Besides the small units at Fort Meade, we were also home to
the Army Ground Forces Replacement Depot #1. Under
that innocuous title, they were responsible for moving
3.5 million soldiers overseas to all theaters of operations.
They were responsible for one out of every five soldiers
in the European Theater of Operations. The AGFRD #1
would take in everything from individual replacements to