Editing Fort Meade (section)

===20th century===
Initially called Camp [[Annapolis Junction, Maryland|Annapolis Junction]], the post was opened as "Camp Admiral" in 1917 on {{Convert|29.7|sqmi|km2|abbr=on}} acquired for a training camp. The post was called Camp Meade Cantonment by 1918,<ref>Supplemental History of Construction at Camp Meade, Including Completion Report of Camp Franklin Signal Corps school.[http://www.ftmeade.army.mil/museum/archives/Arch]{{dead link|date=April 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}. Admiral, MD: February 1919. Weiss, Dreyfous and Seiferth Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.</ref> Camp Franklin Signal Corps school was located there and in 1919, the [[Camp Benning]] tank school—formed from the World War I [[Camp Colt, Pennsylvania|Camp Colt]] and [[Tobyhanna Army Depot|Tobyhanna]] schools—was transferred to the fort before the [[United States Tank Corps|Tank Corps]] was disbanded.<ref>{{cite report |last=Rockenbach |first=Samuel D |author-link=Samuel Rockenbach |date=October 13, 1919 |title=Report of the Director of the Tank Corps for the year ending June 30, 1919 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xq4qAAAAYAAJ&q=tobyhanna+%22tank+corps%22&pg=PA251 |work=Congressional serial set, Issue 7688 |access-date=2011-01-17}}</ref>

Renamed to Fort Leonard Wood (February 1928<ref>{{cite news |date=February 19, 1928 |title=Gen. Leonard Wood Memorial Authorized By Chief of Staff |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gI9FAAAAIBAJ&pg=3778,4551594&dq=fort-leonard-wood+maryland&hl=en |format=Google News Archive |newspaper=The Telegraph-Herald and Times-Journal |access-date=2011-09-02}}</ref>&nbsp;– March 5, 1929),<ref name=History>{{cite web |title=Fort Meade history |url=http://www.ftmeade.army.mil/pages/history/history.html |publisher=Fort Meade |access-date=2011-09-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111173532/http://www.ftmeade.army.mil/pages/history/history.html |archive-date=2011-11-11 }}</ref> the fort's [[Experimental Motorized Force]]s in the summer and fall of 1928 tested vehicles and tactics in expedition convoys (Camp Meade observers had joined the in-progress [[1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy]]). In 1929, the fort's [[66th Armor Regiment (United States)|1st Tank Regiment]] [[Gettysburg Battlefield camps after the American Civil War|encamped on the Gettysburg Battlefield]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gdg.org/Research/Authored%20Items/BCRReports/1930.html |title=1930 Reports |publisher=Gdg.org |access-date=2012-09-04}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], Fort Meade was used as a [[recruit training]] post and [[prisoner of war camp]], in addition to a holding center for approximately 384 [[Internment of Japanese Americans|Japanese]], [[Internment of German Americans|German]], and [[Internment of Italian Americans|Italian]] immigrant residents of the U.S. arrested as potential [[fifth column]]ists. The [[Second United States Army|Second U.S. Army Headquarters]] transferred to the post on June 15, 1947;<ref name=History /> and in 1957,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nsa.gov/news-features/declassified-documents/nsa-60th-timeline/1950s.shtml |title=NSA/CSS Timeline - 1950s - NSA.gov |publisher=NSA.gov |access-date=2017-10-14}}</ref> the post became headquarters of the [[National Security Agency]].

====Cold War air defense====
From the 1950s until the 1970s, the [[Fort Meade radar station]] had various [[radar]] equipment and control systems for air defense, such as the 1st [[Martin AN/FSG-I Antiaircraft Defense System]].<ref>A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946–1980,  by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado</ref>  Fort Meade also had the first [[Nike Missile#Nike Ajax|Nike Ajax]] [[surface-to-air missile]]s in December 1953 (operational May 1954)<ref>{{cite web|author1=United States Army Air Defense School|title=USAADS Digest 1965, Chapter 2: Air Defense Doctrine And Procedures|url=http://ed-thelen.org/USAADSDigest1965chapter2.pdf|website=Ed Thelen's Nike Missile Web Site|publisher=Ed Thelen|date=1965}}</ref> and an accidental firing occurred [[List of accidents and incidents involving military aircraft (1955–59)#1955|in 1955 with Battery C, 36th AAA Missile Battalion]]. In 1962, the Army's Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 13th Air Defense Artillery Group, transferred from Meade to [[Homestead Air Reserve Base#Air Defense Command|Homestead AFB]] for initial deployment of [[MIM-23 Hawk]] missiles, and during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], the 6th Battalion (HAWK), 65th Artillery at Fort Meade (a [[United States Strike Command]] unit) was deployed to the Miami/Key West area<ref>{{cite web|author=Jerry Wilkinson |url=http://www.keyshistory.org/KL-NikeSite.html |title=North Key Largo Missile Site |publisher=Keyshistory.org |access-date=2012-09-04}}</ref> (the 8th Battalion (Hawk) was at the fort in late 1964).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nicap.org/reports/641219patuxent_rep4.htm |title=UFO Report |publisher=Nicap.org |date=1964-12-19 |access-date=2012-09-04}}</ref> Fort Meade bomb disposal experts were dispatched to secure nuclear bombs in the [[1964 Savage Mountain B-52 crash]].

In 1977, a merger organized the fort's U.S. Army Intelligence Agency as part of the [[United States Army Intelligence and Security Command]]. On October 1, 1991, a [[694th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group|wing of the Air Force Intelligence Command]] transferred to Fort Meade, and the organization was replaced by{{Failed verification|date=September 2011}} the [[707th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group|70th Operations Group]] on May 1, 2005.<ref>{{cite web |title=Inside 70th ISR Wing |url=http://www.70isrw.af.mil/70thisrwing/70thisrgroup/index.asp |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120716083551/http://www.70isrw.af.mil/70thisrwing/70thisrgroup/index.asp |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 16, 2012 |work=70th ISR Wing |publisher=70ISRW.AF.mil |access-date=2011-09-05}}</ref>  In the early 1990s<!--October 1991 and January 1993-->, {{convert|12.7|sqmi|km2|abbr=on}} was transferred from the post to the [[Patuxent Research Refuge]].<ref name=EPA/> A planned closure of the post in the 1990s was not implemented,{{When|date=September 2011}}<!-- before or after the end of the Cold War? --> and the Defense Information School moved to the fort in 1995.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dinfos.osd.mil/Dinfosweb/History.aspx |title=DINFOS History |publisher=Dinfos.osd.mil |access-date=2012-09-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120913080426/http://www.dinfos.osd.mil/Dinfosweb/History.aspx |archive-date=2012-09-13 }}</ref> The [[311th Signal Command (United States)|311th Signal Command headquarters]] was at Fort Meade from 1996 to September 2006.