Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years
You may know Fort George G. Meade as a cyber and intelligence hub, but did you know that the installation used to be the home of Army Tank School after World War I? Or that it housed an internment camp at the start of World War II for primarily German-American and Italian-American citizens and foreign nationals? Learn more about the fascinating history of the third largest Army base in the U.S. in terms of number of workforce in this book.
You may know Fort George G. Meade as a cyber and intelligence hub, but did you know that the installation used to be the home of Army Tank School after World War I? Or that it housed an internment camp at the start of World War II for primarily German-American and Italian-American citizens and foreign nationals? Learn more about the fascinating history of the third largest Army base in the U.S. in terms of number of workforce in this book.
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Val Browning<br />
By Sherry Kuiper<br />
When the U.S. entered WWI on Apr. 6, 1917, our soldiers<br />
had been issued an array of obsolete weaponry that was<br />
not up to the task. In fact, many of the troops went into<br />
battle carrying second-rate weapons borrowed from the<br />
French and British military. It was fortuitous then, that<br />
John M. Browning had been awarded a contract for his<br />
new automatic rifle less than two months prior.<br />
By July of that year, 2nd Lt. Val Browning, the son<br />
of the inventor, was serving in France as part of <strong>Fort</strong><br />
<strong>Meade</strong>’s 79th Infantry Division, the first U.S. military unit<br />
to receive the latest piece of weaponry, the Browning<br />
automatic rifle. Browning showed his fellow soldiers how<br />
to use the rifle against the enemy.<br />
***<br />
(Top) <strong>The</strong> M1918 BAR is often considered the first successful<br />
squad automatic rifle. 2nd Lt. Val Browning, eldest son of<br />
inventor John Moses Browning, is shown here in one of the<br />
rare photos taken of him while training U.S. troops and fieldtesting<br />
his fathers’ guns in France during WW1.<br />
(Middle left) <strong>The</strong> portability of the magazine-fed M1918<br />
BAR allowed one soldier to lay down the same firepower as<br />
a squad of riflemen. Shown is John Browning’s son 2nd Lt.<br />
Val Browning.<br />
(Middle center) In this photo 2 nd Lt. Val Browning<br />
demonstrates the “walking fire” concept with a M1918 BAR<br />
(this studio photo was probably taken in United States prior<br />
to his deployment to France).<br />
(Lower left) 2 nd Lt. Val Browning shown setting up and<br />
demonstrating one of his father’s M1917 machine guns.<br />
(Center right) 2 nd Lt. Val Browning is shown again, setting<br />
up and demonstrating one of his father’s M1917 machine<br />
guns. Note the long fabric ammunition belt.<br />
(Bottom left) At a small crossroads somewhere in France in<br />
1918, 2 nd Lt. Val Browning demonstrates the inner workings<br />
and cycle of operation for the new M1917 Browning .30<br />
caliber machine gun.<br />
(Bottom right) Another great photo of 2 nd Lt. Val Browning<br />
with his father’s M1918 BAR. In this photo an assistant (also<br />
an officer) is shown passing him a 20-round magazine.<br />
WORLD WAR I YEARS<br />
59
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