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Camp Murray is next to the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. The Washington Army National Guard, Washington State Guard, and the Washington Air National Guard (WANG) call this home.
The history of Camp Murray dates back prior to that of its sibling, Joint Base Lewis-McChord by almost 10 years. Camp Murray was open during the Indian War of 1855 for Military Training with Fort Steilacoom. The site was commissioned as a National Guard Base in 1889 which is almost 10 years before For Lewis. Camp Murray was officially the National Guard’s state headquarter location in 1922.
During the history of Camp Murray, the military personnel assigned to Camp Murray had a wide range of missions. Their service included disaster relief, the Mexican Border Campaign against Pancho Villa, World War I and World War II, the Korean War, the Berlin Wall crisis, the Vietnam War, the Mount Saint Helen disaster in 1980 and the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations.
If you visit Camp Murray you can visit the Old Arsenal Museum and learn the story of the Washington National Guard gate entrance. There are many vehicles from an M47 Tank to an F101 Jet Fighter Aircraft. One interesting fact is that between the tank and the jet it is 134 feet that represents the number of years between the camp’s use by the United States Military in 1855 and Washington’s Centennial in 1989. The number of Guardsman mobilized, killed or injured in various campaigns around the world are memorialized in the other distances there.
