page_title: Fort Howard (Maryland)
section_title: Later uses
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Howard (Maryland) / History / Later uses
caption_attribution_description: Fake Vietnamese village building (used for training) at Fort Howard, Maryland.
context_page_description: Fort Howard was a military installation located on the North Point peninsula, overlooking the main channel of the Patapsco River leading into the harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Although militarily important since the early 19th century, its surviving elements and name date to the Spanish–American War. It was named by Elihu Root, Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1902 after Colonel John Eager Howard. The installation earned the nickname the "Bulldog at Baltimore's Gate", serving as the coastal artillery headquarters for Baltimore, Maryland. Fort Howard's historical significance is its military connection with the War of 1812, the Spanish–American War, and World War II.
  The fort grounds are now divided between a public park, which encompasses the sites of its batteries, and the non-public grounds of the former Fort Howard Veterans Hospital, which are in the process of redevelopment.
context_section_description: It was the first headquarters of the newly formed Third Corps Area in 1920, and became the Headquarters of the Coast Defenses of Baltimore in 1922. The nurses' home was the headquarters of General Douglas MacArthur from 1925 to 1928.
  The installation was turned over to the U.S. Veterans' Administration (now the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) in 1940, which still owns the majority of the property, and which established the Fort Howard Veterans Hospital on the site. During World War II it was used as a holding center for German prisoners of war and Japanese and German "enemy aliens" (non-citizen residents of the U.S. who were arrested as potential fifth columnists but, in most cases, denied due process).
  In the 1960s it was used as an auxiliary training area for the U. S. Army Intelligence School at Fort Holabird in Dundalk. A typical Vietnamese village was built there to train Special Forces ("green Berets") for counterinsurgency operations in the Vietnam War. The village had realistic tunnels. Instructors acted the part of insurgents who were captured and subjected to training interrogation and often to harsh treatment. Also in the 1960s and until the mid-1970s, other students were trained there in water and land infiltration and instructors were the opposition. When students were caught they were interrogated in the underground coastal defense bunkers. Interrogation usually meant the students holding bricks on their outstretched arms while standing naked on rubber tires. All training ceased when the Intelligence school moved to Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
  The portion of the property containing the old coastal artillery fortifications was declared surplus federal land and was transferred to Baltimore County in 1975 for use as a historical park. Interpretive plaques and signs were placed throughout the park explaining the various military fortifications, weapons and their purposes.
  Two surviving examples of the 4.7 inch Gun M1906 designed and issued by the US Army Ordnance Department in 1906 are on  display  at Fort Howard.
caption: An imitation Vietnamese house built for training purposes
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