CAMP
UPTON
CONVALESCENT HOSPITAL
Copied from the Camp Upton convalescent yearbook
Entrance gate to Camp Upton.
The Camp Upton
Convalescent Hospital operated for 22 months. The mission
was to provide care of overseas veterans and to restore
them to physical, mental and emptional fitness.
Upton's initial
82 patients were transferred from Atlantic City on 28
September 1944 when the Second Service Command
Convalescent Hospital was activated. Then in February
1945, the whole post became an ASF Convalescent Hospital
with authorized capacity of 3,500 but actually rising to
4,300 in its peak period. The mission was to put these
patients in the best possible physical, mental and
emotional condition thru planned use of their time in
physical, educational and occupational pursuits.
Exterior
view of barracks, showing unusual chutes, for easy escape
in case of fire.
Much original
thinking and planning were required, for the idea of a
convalescent hospital was new and there were few
precedents to follow. With a strong conviction of the
worth of the work, early difficulties in lack of
equipment were overcome thru initiative and hard work.
Few can realize
the amount of new construction and the remodeling of old
facilities that the Army has provided for its
convalescent patients, as one sees Upton today. There was
a modest request for less than $10,000 alterations in the
first week of hospital's existence in 1944. However, on
30 January 1945, new criteria for increases in
construction were received. Planning started immediately.
Every energy and push was given by Surgeon General and
Surgeon, Second Service Command, to make this Post the
outstanding example of its type in the country. The
hospital had started with only 53 plain barracks and 9
other buildings left from Reception Center days. In the
spring of 1945 the Post Engineer and District Engineer
cooperated to supervise a construction company's
remodeling 71 barracks up to the finest hospital
standards, painting every building on the Post,
converting 57,000 square feet of warehouse space into 7
of the finest Pre-Technical Shops, as well as all the
necessary requirements to carry on life in an equivalent
city of 5,000 population - enlarging the library, service
club, dental clinic, mess halls, Music studio building,
Detachment dayroom, the cold-storage plant and commissary
store. In addition to all that remodeling, the new
construction out of concrete blocks left nothing to be
desired - 2 large remedial gyms with connecting indoor
swimming pool, as well as 2 new field houses for
athletics and games, along with a ten-acre hard-surfaced
game area for every sport from outdoor bowling to
handball (even a combination concrete tennis court (and
ice skating rink); eight new one -story Academic
Education buildings of 34 rooms; the most modern
Physio-Therapy building, well-equipped; 24 indoor bowling
alleys; a large patient personnel building; and one of
the finest Red Cross buildings, with an auditorium for
800.
Interior of Remedial gym.
All these
buildings, either remodeled or new construction, have
central heating. Many soldiers who went thru Upton in the
Reception Center days returned as patients at the
hospital to marvel at the changes.
One of 24
indoor bowling alleys.
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