Legacy Left
By Matt Helget
Just north of Coffin Butte is Robison Rd. Feeling the cool breeze as one follows this gravel road out through the farms and open areas shows the beauty and rurality of the mid-Willamette Valley you will come to a corner (Robison and Rifle Range Rds.) and will notice that there is a cyclone fence and barbed wire at the top. To think 80 years ago this road was in the middle of a bustling military training area with the north artillery and motors roaring as their crews worked on reading maps and understanding their coordinates. Then on the south side, using the north face of the hill as a backstop there were ranges for submachine guns and pistols. Soldiers would also go out a little further west of the Butte to ranges 1-4 to train on the 30-caliber rifles and machine guns on the rifle ranges, the ones that were predominately at this crossroad intersection.
Figure 1: Map of the Ranges Curtsey of the Benton County Historical Society
These young men, many of whom had never seen a rifle, let alone used one even for hunting would come to Camp Adair as draftees and learn how to use one to defend themselves and the principles of freedom each one was willing to defend. Rifle ranges 1 -4 would be used to train these boys with the 1903 30. Cal Springfield and m1917 Enfield-styled rifles early on, then to the 30 cal. M1 rifle, the 30 cal. Carbine, the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), and the Browning light and heavy belt-fed machine gun were tested for marksmanship accuracy and understanding to use each in combat overseas. For two-plus years, the sounds of gunfire and explosions would fill 65,000 training acres as the four infantry divisions would pass through to their designated overseas theaters of operations.
Figure 2: 41st Infantry Division Patch. Stock Image
After the war, much of this land would return to its prewar usage, farming. Minus about 525 acres that the Corp of Engineers would keep and lend to the Oregon Military Department for a National Guard training area. The new Camp Adair would utilize the space of range 4. Over the years the structures and land would change usage, but the range is still a training facility today. It is the primary rifle training range for the National Guard and is also contracted out to the Oregon State Police for marksmanship training. Additional training occurs at the facility too. There is a land navigation course for Guardsmen to learn map reading skills and to train around. There are also structures for additional police training and pistol ranges
In 2013, there would be a change to the training area and the legacy of Camp Adair. Range 4, Camp Adair would undergo a name change. This change is in honor of the sacrifices of the new breed of soldiers who had sacrificed their freedoms in Iraq at a place called Najaf.
. Though it is now Camp Najaf, the range’s legacy is multigenerational. The change was not to rewrite the legacy of Captain Henry Adair and his laying down his life during the border issues and attempts to capture the outlaw Pancho Villa, to the approximately 80,000 troops that would train at the camp that would be named for this
historic Oregonian, or to the men and women who would train with the 41st Infantry Division (National Guard) on range 4 until the war in Iraq post-9/11; it was a change to honor those who were called upon to defend the US in bitter fighting in 2004/2005; just like the ones who passed through these grounds years prior. Camp Najaf is Camp Adair. The name might be new, but the service is still the same.
Matt, when I was young, a friend and I dug lead out of one of the Coffin Butte ranges. This range was, we understood, for trainies who had never shot a gun. It was .22 rounds. We were planning to make some money selling lead, never happened.
When I was older, I fired many .30 & .45 caliber rounds on the National Guard Range. I don’t remember if we ever fired the .50 cal machine gun at Adair. I ended up as a tank commander in the Dallas unit, Tp A, 1st Recon Squadron, 82nd Armored, 41st Inf Div.