Military

In presenting this history of our Regiment to my fellow-soldiers of the 33d Iowa Infantry, I hope their memories while reading, may be as warm and pleasant as have been mine while writing it. For whatever of omission or error it contains, I have only to say, that the whole was written amidst the very press of editorial and many other duties, and a very great part of it after nine o'clock at night. The work is as well as I could make it under the circumstances.

The Camp Dodge military reservation, located northwest of Iowa's capital, Des Moines, has been a community presence in times of war and peace. During World War I, a city serving over 45,000 soldiers sprang up inside its boundaries. As quickly as the army's city was built, it was dismantled, no longer needed at the war's end. The land again became a training area for the Iowa National Guard. The community found a home here too, flocking to one of the world's largest outdoor swimming pools, built in the early 1920s. World War II saw the post processing new soldiers and training the Iowa State Guard, left behind to safeguard the state. Over the years, the camp has heard the pounding of horses' hooves turn to the roar of tanks. Hand-drawn strategy maps have given way to high-tech computer maneuver simulations. Camp Dodge has survived and grown.