Hearing Artillery Rounds?

What are those loud booms that seem to shake the windows at different times of the day and night? It's Fort Bragg's artillery.

Here is some history from Fort Bragg's historian on how the artillery evolved at Fort Bragg:

In 1918, the Chief of Field Artillery, General William J. Snow, seeking an area having suitable terrain, adequate water, rail facilities and a climate for year-round training, decided that the area now known as Fort Bragg met all of the desired criteria.

Consequently, Camp Bragg came into existence on Sept. 4, 1918. Camp Bragg was named for a native North Carolinian and Confederate general, General Braxton Bragg. Prior to its establishment as a military reservation, the area was a desolate region. Huge forests of Longleaf and Loblolly pines covered the sandy area. About 1729 Highland Scots began cultivating the land in the Longstreet Presbyterian Church area in what was to become part of Fort Bragg.

At the beginning of World War I only seven percent of the land was occupied and the population consisted of approximately 170 families. During the first year of its existence, $6 million was spent in purchasing land and erecting cantonments for six artillery brigades. Although cessation of hostilities came in November 1918, work was rapidly pushed to a conclusion and Feb. 1, 1919, saw the completion of Camp Bragg. As soon as World War I was over, the artillery personnel and material from Camp McClellan, Alabama were transferred to Camp Bragg in order accommodate testing the new long range weapons developed during the war.

Because demobilization had begun, the War Department decided to reduce the size of Camp Bragg from the planned six to a two brigade cantonment to provide a garrison for Regular Army units and a training center for National Guard Artillery units. Military personnel then took over all of the work at the Camp, a large part of which had been done by wartime civilian employees.

The year 1920 saw little military training taking place. A large tract of land on the reservation had been set aside as a landing field to be used in connection with observation of Field Artillery firing. Here were stationed various aircraft and balloon detachments to photograph terrain for mapping, carry mail, spot for artillery and forest fires, and serve in support of the Field Artillery Board. On April 1, 1919, the War Department officially established Pope Field, naming the landing field in honor of First Lieutenant Harley H. Pope. Lieutenant Pope and his crewman, Sergeant Walter W. Flemming, were killed when their Curtiss JN-4 Jenny airplane crashed in the Cape Fear River Jan. 7, 1919 while mapping a U.S. airmail route between Emerson Field, Camp Jackson, South Carolina and Newport News, Virginia. Now one of the oldest installations serving the Air Force early pilots landing at Pope Field were instructed to make one or two low passes over the landing strip to clear it of wild deer.

Early in 1921, two Field Artillery units, the 13th and 17th Field Artillery Brigades, began training in the camp. However, due to postwar cutbacks, the War Department decided to abandon Camp Bragg on Aug. 23, 1921. This was averted by the determined efforts of General Albert J. Bowley, Commanding General of Camp Bragg, various civic organizations in the nearby city of Fayetteville, and a personal inspection by the Secretary of War. The abandonment order was rescinded on Sept. 16, 1921.

One year later, Sept. 30, 1922, Camp Bragg became Fort Bragg, a permanent Army post. Under the direction of General Bowley, development of the fort progressed rapidly. Parade grounds, training facilities, baseball diamonds and other athletic facilities were constructed to lend a permanent air to Camp Bragg. Because Camp Bragg was the only reservation in the United States with room enough to test the latest in long range artillery weapons, the Field Artillery Board was transferred here from Fort Sill, Okla. on Feb. 1, 1922. The Camp was redesignated as Fort Bragg, Sept. 30, 1922.

From 1923 to 1926, Field Artillery regiments made considerable progress in learning how to operate in deep sand, heavy mud, swamps, streams and forests. For each type of Field Artillery weapon there was an organization stationed at Fort Bragg armed with that particular weapon. This made Fort Bragg a Field Artillery Laboratory where every new item of Field Artillery equipment could be given a practical field test. Pope Field also served a role in the development of tactics that would prove critically important in shortening World War II.

From 1923 through 1927, permanent structures were erected on Fort Bragg. Four of the brick artillery barracks, fifty-three officers' quarters, forty noncommissioned officers quarters, magazines, motor and materiel sheds, streets and sidewalks were built. With the planting of lawns, shrubs and trees, Fort Bragg began to take on the appearance of one of the finest of all Army posts.