‘Louisiana Maneuvers’ still remembered six decades later in Winn
It was in the early 1940s, Louisiana was just emerging from the devastating economic blow of the Depression years, when a series of military exercises brought thousands of GIs to Winn Parish and other parts of Central Louisiana, in an event that became known as the Louisiana Maneuvers.
The Maneuvers would help prepare soldiers for U.S. entrance into World War II, and Winn Parish was part of the battlefield.
Dudley Shell, 92, of Winnfield remembers residents welcomed the idea of their parish hosting such a significant event.
“I was a young man then and had been married for a year or two. The Maneuvers came, and I don’t remember just exactly when, but I remember that we had just built a brand new elementary school here in town, and the Army decided they would take that school for their headquarters,” Shell said.
West Side School became the center of operations of many future military heroes who participated in the maneuvers, including generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, George Marshall and George Patton.
The Maneuvers took place from the Carolinas to Texas, but Winn was one of the host parishes for the “Big One,” the granddaddy of military exercises taking place in a 3,400-square-mile area.
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