Abstract
Fort Indiantown Gap, located near Annville in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, is celebrated as a Pennsylvania Army and National Guard training center. Less well known, however, is the military site’s connection to Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. In 1932, the state of Pennsylvania purchased more than 18,000 acres of land in northern Lebanon and Dauphin Counties to establish a munitions testing and military training site for the Pennsylvania National Guard. The federal government contributed funds for its construction through public works programs, and by 1934 the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, named after a former Native American village located in a gap in the Blue Mountains, was up and running. The reservation fell under federal control during World War II and was used as training grounds for soldiers and housing for German prisoners of war, many of whom labored on nearby farms. Today, the Pennsylvania National Guard (PNG) maintains the reservation, known as Fort Indiantown Gap since 1975, and operates a museum dedicated to the history of the PNG.