Camp Crane Camp Crane was a World War I United States Army Ambulance Service ( USAAS ) training camp , located in Allentown , Pennsylvania . Its mission was to train ambulance drivers to evacuate causalities on the Western Front in France . It was named for Brigadier General Charles Henry Crane , surgeon general of the Army in 1882 - 83 . Today , the location of Camp Crane is used as the Allentown Fairgrounds History . Establishment . When the United States entered World War I , the status of American volunteers in Europe became uncertain because they now had a U . S . military obligation to fulfill . France , fearing the loss of ambulance volunteers , requested that the United States ensure the uninterrupted continuation of the vital service . U . S . leaders thus agreed to incorporate American volunteer ambulance units into the American Army and to continue their service at the front with the French . The Army organized a new ambulance corps for that purpose . War Department General Orders No . 75 , which established the U . S . Army Ambulance Service ( USAAS ) , was issued on 23 June 1917 . However , even before that , beginning in mid - May , rumors of the Army being interested in establishing a training camp at the Allentown , Pennsylvania Fairgrounds began to circulate . The fairgrounds was established in 1889 by the Lehigh County Agricultural Society ( LCAS ) as a site to hold its annual fair and operated a farmer ' s market inside a large grandstand , built in 1902 . The property , about 50 acres in size , also had a small horse racing track , stables and several exhibition halls . The LCAS and representatives of the United States Army concluded an agreement for the Army to lease the fairgrounds , and as a result of that agreement , an announcement was made by the LCAS that the Allentown Fair would be cancelled in 1917 . The Army assigned the fairgrounds to the USAAS and designated the site Camp Crane . It was named for Brigadier General Charles H . Crane , surgeon general from 1882 to 1883 . Its mission was to train recruits as ambulance drivers , mechanics , orderlies and the other skills they would need on the Western Front . The also became the site of the USAAS headquarters . Training . Unlike other Army camps which generally were located nearby , but outsides of towns and cities . Camp Crane was located in a city , although the West End of Allentown at the time was sparsely populated . Recruits began to arrive on 1 June . They were billeted in available fairgrounds buildings , including horse barns , pig pens , and horse cooling sheds . A large mess hall was established under the Fairgrounds Grandstands . The fairgrounds itself , a dirt and grass field , became a large tent city , with tents being erected for the recruits to live in . At the same time Camp Crane became the home of over eighty doctors and other members of three temporary field hospitals that used Allentown as a staging area . Nurses were housed in the nearby Nurses College of Allentown Hospital . Evacuation hospital units and mobile hospital and surgical units were also to come to Allentown to prepare for wartime duty in Europe . According to the camp ’ s commanding officer , Lieutenant Colonel Richard Slee , the camp was originally only intended to house approximately 2 , 500 men . Before the camp was brought up to full speed , however , that number had increased to 4 , 500 and then to 7 , 500 . As a result of the large numbers of men occupying such a small space , housing was an acute problem . Several additional buildings were constructed at the western end of the fairgrounds beginning in July 1917 , and several others were built on the eastern end to relieve the overcrowding . Despite such makeshift quarters , the USAAS attracted the adventurous by offering the promise of quick and certain action in Europe . By 19 June 1917 , over thirteen hundred volunteers were in training at Camp Crane ; a week later , the number stood at thirty - three hundred . In all , 20 , 310 volunteers ( 2 , 085 officers and 18 , 225 enlisted ) trained at Camp Crane between 1 June 1917 and 10 April 1919 . In September 1917 , the USAAS was joined by 150 gas mask instructors . They established a separate school for training gas mask instructors who would instruct soldiers about using the masks in France . Volunteers came from Army recruiting stations , predecessor volunteer ambulance units , and a variety of institutions and industrial organizations . Sponsors of USAAS sections included over forty universities and colleges . Harvard University , which had led in the number of volunteers for the American Field Service , set another record by providing three USAAS sections . Other sponsors included corporations , cities , and sports groups . The trainees were an exceptional group . Volunteers for the Army Ambulance Service were generally conscientious objectors , who did not want to serve in combat units . As such , many of them were undergraduate college students planning a medical career . The Ambulance Service was a way for them to satisfy their draft obligation and also for those men who wanted to support the war effort , but not to serve directly in combat . Many volunteers were medical students who wanted to do their part for the war effort . Fifteen All - American college football players among them became the nucleus of a team that played a winning season against a lineup that included Georgetown University , Penn State , and Fordham , a few of which would later play in the early National Football League teams of the 1920s . The camp band also attracted premier musical talent , also drawn from college bands and music schools around the country . John Philip Sousa was among the guest conductors . Lt . Col . Clarence P . Franklin , MC , who succeeded Colonel Persons as the camp commander , convinced Sousa to write a march for the Army Ambulance " Corps , " and the famous composer copyrighted the " USAAC March " in 1919 . The USAAC Band participated in several concerts and parades in the Allentown area , as well as bond drives to support the war effort . Many writers also served in the USAAC . Their transition into the life of a soldier was recorded in letters , diaries , and literature . In 1917 John Dos Passos returned from service in France with Norton - Harjes Ambulance Corps to find a draft notice awaiting him . Deciding to volunteer for the USAAS , he reported to Camp Crane . He later wrote of his " captivity " at " Syphilis Valley " where he said he had washed over a million windows . His novel Three Soldiers was based on his experiences there and featured characters he encountered in training at Camp Crane and later during his service in France . Other notable members of the USAAC who trained at Camp Crane were Ernest Hemingway , Harry Crosby , Ray Kroc , William A . Wellman , and Frank Buckles , whom became the last American World War I veteran . Those who had volunteered to go " over there " were frustrated when the Army did not quickly ship them to Europe and became bored with repetitive tasks , such as marching day after day . An auxiliary camp was established in August 1917 at Kern ' s Mill , about eight miles north of Allentown , and at Belzwood , five miles west of Norristown to take the overflow from Camp Crane . To provide even more space , in November a site was set up in - between Heilerman ' s Crossing and Guth ' s Station as if they were in trenches in France . Known as Guth Station , the trainees established an underground city , digging in about eight feet deep into the fields and erecting small shacks where they installed small stoves . The recruits found living in the mud and dirt trenches there to be particularly vexsome , but it was a good simulation of what they would find on the Western Front . For recreation , Camp Crane established football , tennis and track teams . The city of Allentown established a " Big Brother " program to work with young men in Allentown . Also the local YMCA provided phonographs , books and magazines . People invited recruits into their private homes for evenings away from the Camp , and local establishments held dances and other social outings . In time Camp Crane graduates did make it " over there . " The first contingent ( Section ) arrived in France on 21 August 1917 , commanded by Colonel Jones , who left Camp Crane to head up the USAAS in France from headquarters in Paris . On 26 September , the commander in chief , A . E . F . , requested that an additional 10 sections be sent to France as soon as possible , in addition to the 20 sections already there , plus 300 unassigned recruits . Each section was composed of approximately " 45 men , 20 Ford M1917 ambulances , 1 Ford touring car , 1 truck , and a kitchen trailer " . Additional sections were deployed to France and also Italy from Camp Crane as they graduated . On 26 August 1918 , the commanding officer at Camp Crane reported that 82 sections had been sent overseas and 8 had been disbanded , but that 31 sections were being organized and motor transport for them secured . The last contingent was sent to France on 2 November 1918 . A total of 95 separate Sections were trained in Allentown and deployed to France ; 22 were sent to Italy . Camp Crane also became a pre - embarkation camp in 1918 , with thousands of men moving in and out rapidly , usually arriving and leaving on trains in the middle of the night with convoys of trucks rolling though the city to the fairgrounds . Closure . With the Armistice with Germany announced on 11 November 1918 , a massive parade was held , and several hundred of the recruits being trained at Camp Crane marched though the city . Afterwards training ended and the recruits began to leave for home . During the winter of 1918 - 1919 Army activities at Camp Crane began to wind down , and preparations began to close the camp and return it back to the LCAS . Flags at Camp Crane were taken down for the last time in a ceremony held at noon on 10 April 1919 and the fairgrounds was turned back over to the Agricultural society . The men of the USAAC that had gone to France and Italy had hoped to be able to be demobilized in Allentown , but by the time of their return it was closed . The Army had made significant changes to the fairgrounds . A large steam - heating plant was installed with steam pipes dug throughout the farigrounds which equipped all the buildings for heat . A large amusement hall with bowling alleys with a large library and a cinema was built . Numerous buildings for classes and barracks were also erected . The buildings erected by the Army were mostly sold off and either moved to new locations or dismantled and used for wood to build new buildings . Over $ 120 , 000 worth of iron and steel from the buildings , along with the heating , piping , and other components were taken apart and sold off . In addition , huge piles of coal were left with over 4 , 000 tons that needed to be taken away . However , by the end of August 1919 , nearly all physical evidence of Camp Crane was gone , and the 1919 Allentown Fair was held at the site . In 1927 , a stone monument to the men who trained at Camp Crane was erected at the Allentown Fairgrounds . In the 1960s it was moved to Allentown ' s West Park , a few blocks away . Another memorial can be found on the wall of the fairgrounds grandstand , near the ticket office which was placed there in 1972 .