The Iowa National Guard’s home base is among the busiest military facilities in the country.
” Camp Dodge has become a significant regional training center for the Midwest,” says Major General Timothy Orr, the Iowa National Guard’s leader. “In 2014, only three other major National Guard training installations in the United States had more visitors than Camp Dodge.”
Last year more than 450,000 civilians, law enforcement officers and troops from Guard units based in other states went through the security gates at Camp Dodge. One reason for the increased traffic at Camp Dodge is the completion of a national training center for several types of military units.
“This one-of-a-kind, world-class training center that provides individual qualification and turn-key, unit- level ‘sustainment training’ for National Guard, U.S. Army Reserve and Active Duty Army logistical, ordnance, maintenance, transportation and medical units,” Orr says.
The Medical Simulation Center at Camp Dodge became fully operational in 2014, too. There are only 17 other facilities like it in the world.
“It provides standardized emergency medical training to military and law enforcement personnel through a combination of realistic, hands-on and virtual battlefield simulated conditions,” Orr says.
Camp Dodge served as a regional training center for soldiers who served in World War I and, during World War II, Camp Dodge was used by the U.S. military as an induction center for soldiers. Camp Dodge is named for Brigadier General Grenville Dodge. He organized the first Iowa Guard unit in 1856.