First Officers Training Camp

The camp grew from the army's search for room to train. The Leon Springs Military Reservation was bought in 1906-07 after Fort Sam Houston's ranges grew unsafe, and its first maneuvers came in 1908. Facilities there were named Camp Funston after Gen. Frederick Funston died in San Antonio in February 1917, then renamed Camp Stanley because Kansas had a Camp Funston of its own. In July 1917 the Fifty-seventh Infantry arrived with Lt. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Beauford Jester, one of the camp's graduates, later led a company of the 357th Infantry at St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne.

What the plaque says

First Officers Training Camp The first World War came to America on April 6, 1917, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the declaration, passed by Congress, that a state of war existed between the United States of America and Germany. Immediately thereafter, eight camps were established in the U.S. to train officers for combat leadership. The first was at Leon Springs, Texas, and on May 8, 1917, three thousand volunteers assembled at Camp Funston on the Schasse Ranch (now a part of Camp Bullis near this site) for training in various branches of the army. They endured three months of intense training and 1,846 young men graduated on August 15, 1917, as second lieutenants. The length of their training resulted in the term "90-day wonders." Embodying their motto "brave men shall not die because I faltered," the members of the first officers training camp served with distinction in the war, many of them highly decorated for valor in combat. Almost 300, many highly ranking colonels or generals, returned to active duty for service in World War II. Three of those trained here later became governors: Beauford Jester of Texas, James R. Beverley of Puerto Rico, and Charles H. Martin of Oregon. Many more "first campers" were prominent leaders in business, industry and government throughout Texas and the United States. Following their training and service, the former comrades in arms organized the "First Officers Training Camp Association" in 1931. Members residing in 30 states and several foreign countries gathered for annual meetings for more than fifty years. Now succeeded by generations of modern soldiers and officers, the First Officers Training Camp veterans leave a legacy of honor, courage and service to their country. (1999)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Natural Bridge Caverns — 17 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.
• Spanish Governor's Palace — 19 mi
  The last visible piece of the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar: a presidio captain's house with a 1749 keystone, a century as shops and saloons, and a romantic 1930 restoration.
• San Fernando Cathedral — 19 mi
  The Canary Islanders' parish church on Main Plaza, where Bowie married and Santa Anna raised a red flag, rebuilt in Gothic Revival around the walls of the 1750s church.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 19 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.

More markers nearby

• Scenic Loop - Boerne Stage - Toutant-Beauregard Historic Corridor — 2.8 mi
• John T. Floore Country Store — 7.1 mi
• Helotes — 7.1 mi
• Cascade Cavern — 7.3 mi