Editing Fort Dix (section)

==Overview==
[[File:Liberty Bell composed of 25000 men at Camp Dix 1918.jpg|thumb|The Human Liberty Bell at Camp Dix, including 25,000 people in 1918]]
Fort Dix was established on 16 July 1917, as Camp Dix, named in honor of Major General [[John Adams Dix]], a veteran of the [[War of 1812]] and the [[American Civil War]], and a former [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]], [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|U.S. Secretary of the Treasury]], and [[Governor of New York]].<ref name="Dix">{{cite web |url=http://newpreview.afnews.af.mil/mcguire/units/dix/index.asp |title=Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Dix |publisher=Newpreview.afnews.af.mil |access-date=14 January 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714183309/http://newpreview.afnews.af.mil/mcguire/units/dix/index.asp |archive-date=14 July 2014 }}</ref> Camp Dix was home to the 153rd Depot Brigade. The role of [[World War I]] depot brigades was to receive recruits and draftees, then organize them and provide them with uniforms, equipment, and initial military training. Depot brigades also received soldiers returning home at the end of the war and carried out their mustering out and discharges. During World War I, many of the soldiers serving in the U.S. [[78th Infantry Division (United States)|78th Infantry Division]], nicknamed the "Lightning Division," trained at Camp Dix. The inspiration for the nickname came from the famous [[Applejack (drink)|applejack]] whiskey (“white lightning”) produced in central New Jersey and the suggestion that the unit was ready and willing to strike like [[lightning]] at a moment's notice.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 90th Congress, First Session, August 1, 1967-August 9, 1967 |date= |publisher=US Congress |year=1967 |volume=113 part 16 |pages=21578}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=April 7, 1918 |title="Lightning" Name for Dix Division" |work=Trenton Sunday Times-Advertiser |pages=4}}</ref>

Dix has a history of mobilizing, training, and demobilizing soldiers from as early as World War I through April 2015, when [[Fort Bliss]] and [[Fort Hood]] in Texas assumed full responsibility for that mission. In 1978, the first female recruits entered basic training at Fort Dix. In 1991, Dix trained [[Kuwait]]i civilians in basic military skills so they could take part in their [[Gulf War|country's liberation]].<ref name="Dix"/>

Dix ended its active [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] training mission in 1991 due to [[Base Realignment and Closure Commission]] recommendations, which ended its command by a two-star general. Presently, it serves as a joint training site for all military components and all services.

In 2009, Fort Dix and the adjacent [[United States Air Force|Air Force]] and [[United States Navy|Naval]] facilities were consolidated into a single secure facility, called Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.  The supporting component is the U.S. Air Force, and base operations are executed by the [[87th Air Base Wing]], which provides installation management to all of the joint base while both the Navy and Army retain command and control of their missions, personnel, equipment, and component-specific services. Neither the Navy nor the Army base is subordinate to the Joint Base; each is simply supported by the joint base in base operations such as utilities, child-care centers, gyms, and other services, but each one reports through its own service-specific command chain and has its own commander (the Navy a captain and the Army a colonel). The commanders of both Fort Dix and Lakehurst serve also as deputy joint base commanders.<ref>[https://www.jbmdl.jb.mil/ Mission Partners]  webpage. Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JB MDL) official website. Accessed 18 June 2010.</ref>