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EspañolCAMP PATRICK HENRY
'Camp Patrick Henry' is an abandoned military base adjacent to Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport in Newport News, Virginia.
The base served primarily as a troop training center and staging ground during World War II. Approximately 1.5 million troops, most of them bound for deployment in Western Europe, passed through the 1700-acre complex before boarding transport ships at the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation in Newport News.
Camp Patrick Henry also served as a prisoner of war camp, housing over 5,000 German prisoners of war between 1943 and 1945.
After the war, the camp was deactivated and about 925 acres were ceded to the Peninsula Airport Commission, which had plans to build a regional airport on the site. Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport was opened in 1949 and now sits adjacent to the former base.
The U.S. Army continued to operate a Nike Missile site, designated N-85, on the complex until the late 1960s, when the base was shut down permanently.
Today, Camp Patrick Henry sits abandoned and in ruins on private government property. As of August 2007, the entire base is overgrown with trees. Little remains but a vast grid of tarmac roads, two large concrete water tanks, and a few building foundations. The Nike battery's radar site is deteriorating but still largely intact. The four radar platform towers, each rising almost a hundred feet, still remain standing.
Due to expansion at the nearby airport and increasing urban development in northern Newport News, it seems likely that the former base will be lost to community development in the next few decades.
| Contents |
| History |
| Abandoned Site |
| Future |
History
The base served primarily as a troop training center and staging ground during World War II. Approximately 1.5 million troops, most of them bound for deployment in Western Europe, passed through the 1700-acre complex before boarding transport ships at the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation in Newport News.
Camp Patrick Henry also served as a prisoner of war camp, housing over 5,000 German prisoners of war between 1943 and 1945.
After the war, the camp was deactivated and about 925 acres were ceded to the Peninsula Airport Commission, which had plans to build a regional airport on the site. Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport was opened in 1949 and now sits adjacent to the former base.
The U.S. Army continued to operate a Nike Missile site, designated N-85, on the complex until the late 1960s, when the base was shut down permanently.
Abandoned Site
Today, Camp Patrick Henry sits abandoned and in ruins on private government property. As of August 2007, the entire base is overgrown with trees. Little remains but a vast grid of tarmac roads, two large concrete water tanks, and a few building foundations. The Nike battery's radar site is deteriorating but still largely intact. The four radar platform towers, each rising almost a hundred feet, still remain standing.
Future
Due to expansion at the nearby airport and increasing urban development in northern Newport News, it seems likely that the former base will be lost to community development in the next few decades.
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