In 1942 it was only 15 acres of the 2,040 acres of WWII Camp Shanks !

The Camp was closed in 1946 and in time all the acres found new owners and uses except the 15 acres I am writing about, half of which was railroad side rails and asphalt. The side rails were built during WW II to move the GI's by railroad to the New Jersey seaports, where giant ocean liners were waiting to cross the Atlantic with thousands of our warriors to face death.

Not every GI took the railroads to the seaports, many took ships from the Piermont dock down to NJ via the Hudson River.

The 15 acres rested quietly until :

In 1955, this site was chosen as the Headquarters of Rockland County’s role in the world wide Nike Missile Program. During the tense years of the Cold War, from 1953 to 1979, the United States Army built and operated close to 300 Nike Missile sites in the United States.

The program ended in 1974 and the abandoned Nike Missile Program Headquarters were temporarily used by a Special Forces Company out of Maryland and the Special Forces Unit Company B of 845 Engineering Battalion of 411 Engineering Brigade of the US Army.

In or around 2009, the Federal Government declared the 15 acres surplus and a group of supporters of veterans created a spin-off charity of the Loeb House charity, which are successful experts of managing community supportive houses for people with special needs, including being homeless. The charity 's name is "Rockland Homes For Heroes"

We applied for a lease based on our pledge to build/operate housing on this military sacred ground just for homeless veterans. We were awarded the lease and we built 2 buildings, each with 4 permeant affordable supportive apartments on Western Highway in the hamlet of Tappan. It set an example, which turned lives around.

In the interim, with the Federal Government's total endorsement/approval the 15 acres were Deeded to the Town of Orangetown, in its efforts to protect the Spark Hill Creek and Marshes from destructive surface storm waters.

This is what the Town created

The "Homes for Heroes" green infrastructure project consists of the development of a 3.6-acre extended detention shallow wetlands that will act as a water quality and quantity treatment basin for the surrounding 151-acre contributing drainage area. This site was part of the former Camp Shanks site, which operated from 1943-1956. The existing building at the north end of the site and the asphalt covered areas were removed. The project involves redirecting a tributary to the Sparkill Creek into the newly developed wetlands. Sparkill Creek is listed by the EPA as a 303(d)-impaired creek, with pollutants of concern being high levels of suspended solids, phosphorous, nitrogen, pathogens and metals. This project is part of a required restoration strategy that redirects a tributary to the Sparkill Creek through the wetlands and significantly reduces, if not mitigates the pollutants of concern.

The positive impact of this will be another story. Meanwhile "Rockland Homes For Heroes" earned the Lease becoming a Deed and we began to convert the classrooms and meeting rooms of the Nike Missile Programs on the second tier into 14 more homes for homeless veterans, which, with God's will, be open for business in July.

To learn more and maybe make a contribution visit www.rocklandhomesforheroes.org

PS - I owe a sincere expression of gratitude to everyone that has made a contribution of food, labor, money for our veterans and an expression of gratitude to the town of Orangetown, especially its Highway Department. And in time I will publish our gratitude to everyone who is involved.