page_title: Camp Toccoa
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Camp Toccoa / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: Richard D. Winters at Toccoa Training Camp, Georgia, in 1942.
context_page_description: Camp Toccoa was a United States Army paratrooper training camp during World War II five miles west of Toccoa, Georgia. It was first planned in 1938, constructed by the Georgia National Guard and the Works Projects Administration beginning 17 January 1940, and was dedicated 14 December 1940. The U.S. Army took over the site in 1942.
context_section_description: The U.S. Army took over a site with few buildings or permanent structures: personnel were originally housed in tents. More permanent barracks were built as the first soldiers started to arrive.
  Initially, Camp Toccoa used the Toccoa municipal airport for jump training, but following a transport accident, it was abandoned for having too short a runway for safe C-39 and C-47 operations. All further jump training occurred at Fort Benning, Georgia.
  Camp Toccoa also lacked a rifle range, so airborne trainees would march 30 miles (48 km) to Clemson Agricultural College, a military school in South Carolina, to practice on the college's shooting range.
  The most prominent local landmark is Currahee Mountain. Paratroopers in training ran from the camp up the mountain and back, memorialized in the HBO series, Band of Brothers, with the shout "three miles up, three miles down." Members of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment still refer to themselves as "Currahees", derived from the Cherokee word gurahiyi, which may mean "standing alone". The regiment's crest is surmounted by a group of 6 fully deployed parachutes.
  Comedian Bob Hope visited Camp Toccoa and entertained the troops there in 1943. He told the troops, "You guys are so rugged, you look like Wheaties with legs."
caption: Richard Winters at Camp Toccoa, 1942
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