Renovating and preparing Fort Lewis for the war effort costed more than 3.5 million dollars. (See Fort Lewis Testing and Training) 1970 Fort Lewis Vietnam mock up training (Credit: Northwest Military) To get a sense of combat in Vietnam, mock villages that included tunnel systems were constructed to replicate the elements of jungle and guerrilla warfare (Flint 2017). Infantry troops at Fort Lewis underwent eight weeks of basic training in addition to a ninth week highlighting the type of warfare to be expected in Vietnam before deployment.

Between 19 the Army used Fort Lewis-based units to conduct a series a counterinsurgency-focused exercises to develop and validate the nation’s embryonic doctrine for fighting the Cold War’s numerous “wars of liberation” ( Flint 2017). “In the years just prior to the war in Vietnam and decades before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Fort Lewis and Washington state were home to the Army’s first large-scale experiments in counterinsurgency warfare. Underground newspapers on base created a platform for G.I.s opposing the war to voice their disapproval of the war. This helped orchestrate a social network of civilians and soldiers within the antiwar community, much like on other military bases around the world ( Cortright 2005 Zeiger 2005). At the same time, the strong antiwar movement had reached Fort Lewis and the area became known for its G.I coffeehouse, the Shelter Half. For example as troops from Fort Lewis preparing to fight Communist forces in Southeast Asia, some troops from the same base were ready to oppose their government’s policies by joining the antiwar movement.įrom May 1966 to June 1972, Fort Lewis trained 302,000 soldiers and deployed them overseas, mostly to Vietnam. Fort Lewis and the Pacific Northwest reacted to the Vietnam War in a variety of ways. The Vietnam War was a conflictive, turbulent, and extremely controversial era in U.S history. Fort Lewis troops training in a mock Vietnam village (Credit: flickriver) Lincoln Koester

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