Fort McCoy is a United States Army Reserve installation on 60,000 acres (24,000 ha) between Sparta and Tomah, Wisconsin, in Monroe County.

These were separated by a line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad that ran across the land from east to west.

In 1910, the army renamed the entire tract "Camp Bruce Elisha McCoy" for the father (a Civil War captain) of Robert Bruce McCoy, a retired major general who first proposed the area as a training ground and bought part of the property on which the fort stands.

[6] During World War II, Fort McCoy was used as a concentration camp[7][8][9] for approximately 170 Japanese and 120 German and Italian American civilians arrested as potentially dangerous "enemy aliens" in 1942.

[10] After the internees were transferred to other camps, McCoy was used as a training facility for units from across the country preparing to enter combat, including the segregated all-Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion.

[14] After the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban in 2021, Fort McCoy hosted one of the largest populations of Afghan evacuees with over 12,600 as of October 2021.

Seventy-four military units deployed through Fort McCoy, totaling more than 9,000 Soldiers, 8% of the reserve forces activated during the Persian Gulf War.

The 890th Engineer Battalion of the Mississippi Army National Guard conducted Mobilization training at McCoy from April to June 2008 before deploying to Iraq.

The 477th Medical Company (Ground Ambulance), located in Duluth, MN, mobilized to Ft. McCoy from December 2003 to February 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

One of the soldiers mobilized was an intra-Reserve transfer or "fill" from Boise, Idaho, who later used his experiences there to form a major chapter in the online webcomic BOHICA Blues.

The entirety of Chapter 3, "Mobe Station", takes place at Fort McCoy and the surrounding area of Sparta and Tomah.

[23][24] The installation also hosts Global Medic, an annual joint-field training exercise designed to replicate all aspects of theater combat medical support, and Operation Cold Steel, a major initiative to improve the Army Reserve's gunnery training, from February through May 2018.

[1] There were two barracks in each compound consisting of 50 bunk beds[1] This is where they would sleep, spend time with one another and write home if they wanted.