Camp Swift, Texas (unnamed copyrighting)

Camp Swift, Texas is a small census designated place, but was once an area consistently teeming with up to 90,000 people are regular basis. The area has a colorful history, filled with military stories, horrific tales of murder, and humorous stories of prisoner escape.

Camp Swift, about 30 miles east of Austin, was established in 1940. While Pearl Harbor was a surprise to most, the US government had actually been prepared for some sort of attack, and as early as 1939 were already preparing for war. It was in this mindset that can't Swift was created. It was created and designated it as a camp in 1940, but work cannot begin on building the facilities until 1942. At that time the nearly 3000 buildings were constructed from scratch and only 140 days, at a cost of almost $25 million.

Initially, the camp was solely a training facility for infantry, but slowly took on more roles. A large number of combat medics and nurses were also trained here. Due to this fact, there was a shortage of nurses for all the area hospitals that lasted until well after the war. During these times, the area was driving with activity, but did not reach its full potential until later in the war when it also tells a prisoner of war camp for captured German and Russian soldiers.

Soldiers being trained here were regularly bussed to Austin, and as a result, a thriving transportation business was created here and still remains. The Kerrville Bus Company had an exclusive contract to bus the soldiers back and forth between camp swift in Austin, and made record profits doing so.

Some of the more colorful tales of the area come as a result of the prisoners and detainees located at the camp. At one point, a group of German detainees donned suits, stolen from their guards, and boarded a hot air balloon, in an attempt to escape. These detainees received an excellent aerial view of the infantry training before crashing their balloon and being captured. In one instance, a German soldier escaped and ran, only to be sent to the hospital with a dog bite on his bottom, due to the fact that a dog had smelled the piece of bologna that he had hidden in his back pocket. More bear seeing for the soldier was the fact that this dog was a German Shepherd.

In 1942, there was a grisly murder at the camp. One of the camps trainees, George S. Knapp, was known for having mental problems, and prior to being drafted was a resident of the mental facility in St. Paul Minnesota. On one of his leaves, he stole a commander's car and drove to Austin. However, shortly outside of camp he encountered a girl walking home from school. The offered to give her a ride, but when he refused to take her home, she began to become hysterical. In an effort to silence her, Knapp strangled her and dumped her in a field. He was quickly cut and confessed to the murder, and shortly after was court-martialed and sentenced to be executed.

Can't Swift is still a National Guard facility and small-town. As of the last census taking, there were about 4000 residents in the area.