Camp Shelby

Camp Shelby is a U.S. Army post whose south gate is located at the southern boundary of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, along U.S. Highway 49. It was originally established during World War I, and has served almost continuously since then as a training site. Operated by the Mississippi National Guard, is the largest state-owned training site in the nation. Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center (CSJFTC), encompassing over 525 square kilometres (129,730 acres) of land (a mix of state, Department of Defense, and U.S. Forest Service-owned lands in the DeSoto National Forest) is located in portions of Perry and Forrest Counties, in southern Mississippi. The size of the camp allows up to battalion-level maneuver training for infantry, live-fire mechanized infantry platoon exercises, field artillery firing, and a wide range of support activities. Camp Shelby is the normal annual training location for National Guard and Reserve units located in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. The 2nd Battalion, 114th Field Artillery of the Mississippi National Guard conducts its gunnery training at Camp Shelby, and has the bulk of its combat equipment stored in the camp's Mobilization and Annual Training Equipment Site (MATES) located there. In addition to the Army's reserve components, active-duty Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force personnel from across the country use its assets to support a variety of missions, and the camp hosts as many as 100,000 personnel annually. It is a training ground for the M1 Abrams tank, M109 self-propelled howitzer, and the home of the 3rd Brigade, 87th Division (Training Support). During wartime, the camp's mission is to serve as a major independent mobilization station of the United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM).