Archaeologists Study Possible Vietnam War–Era Training Ground

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA—Archaeologists are investigating a possible Vietnam War–era military training site at Fort Jackson, an initial entry training center for the U.S. Army in South Carolina, according to an ABC News report. Stacey Young of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology said the surviving system of tunnels in the woods at Fort Jackson may have been accompanied by buildings or huts, since post features have been found at some of the tunnel entrances. The mock village is thought to have been used from the mid-1960s into the early 1970s. “There’s not a lot of documentation on it, so we believe it was put together by soldiers who had experience in Vietnam, came back, and built something from what they believed represented the environment overseas,” said Henry Howe of the Basic Combat Training Museum on Fort Jackson. The researchers will also look for traces of other mock villages as part of the project. To read about a 2,000-year-old mortuary complex that was repeatedly bombed during the Vietnam War, go to "Letter from Laos: A Singular Landscape."