Construction on Camp Robinson began on September 9, 1940. The camp was originally designed as a tent-barracks regimented cantonment for 25,000 soldiers with headquarters and administration buildings, hospital, railroads and warehouses, communications, roads and all utilities. The camp was built by MacDonald Construction Company and G.L. Tarlton Contractor, Inc., St. Louis, Missouri. Construction was completed on March 31, 1941 at a cost of over $11,500,000. Of this, $4,500,000 was spent on labor and $6,000,000 on material. The balance was spent on rental of equipment and engineer and contractor fees. At the peak of construction, December, 1940, the contractors had approximately 10,000 workers on site.

Camp Robinson embraced a total of 44,000 acres. This included the 6,000 acres that the US owned and the balance was either leased or acquired through condemnation proceedings. When completed, the camp consisted of 6,763 buildings, including 5,425 hutments. These were the primary quarters for soldiers at Camp Robinson. They consisted of a 16’ x 16’ wooden floor with a wooden frame. The bottom half of the walls were wood siding; the upper half were screened with canvas flaps. The roofs were originally canvas, but were replaced with wood and tar paper in late 1941. They were heated by a gas fired stove and had one electrical outlet.

The 35^th Division left Camp Robinson during the latter part of 1941. After additional training on both the east and west coasts, the Division saw service with the Third Army in the European theater from July 6, 1944 to the conclusion of hostilities on May 7, 1945.

The 92^nd Infantry Division was activated at Camp Robinson on October 15, 1942. The 92^nd was the last division of the segregated Army. All enlisted personnel and about one-half of the officers were black. The division left Camp Robinson in May of 1943. After additional training at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the Division fought in Italy from August 1944 until the war’s end.

A Branch Immaterial Replacement Training Center (BIRTC) was located on Camp Robinson in early 1942. Its purpose was to train soldiers in basic infantry skills to prepare them for combat, regardless of their specialty. For administrative purposes ,the BIRTC was organized as five regiments, each with three battalions of four companies. A company would typically have 270 trainees, meaning the BIRTC had a capacity of training 16,200 soldiers at a time.

The BIRTC was organized into five training regiments, the 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th.  Each training regiment consisted of three battalions; the 51st, 52nd and 53rd in the 11th; the 56th, 57th and 58th in the 12th; the 61st, 62nd and 63rd in the 13th; the 66th 67th and 68th in the 14th and the 71st, 72nd and 73rd in the 15th.

The BIRTC was converted to an Infantry Replacement Training Center in January of 1943. The training cycle was originally eight weeks, but was expanded to double that in 1943. However, world events often dictated that the training cycle be shortened to fill man power needs.

A Medical Replacement Training Center (MRTC) operated at Camp Robinson from 1942to 1944. Its purpose was to train soldiers as medical personnel. The MRTC consisted of three regiments, the 21^st, 22^nd and 23^rd. The 21^st had two battalions – the 101^st and 102^nd. The other regiments had three battalions each – the 103^rd, 104^th and 105^th in the 22^nd and the 106^th, 107^th and 108^th in the 23^rd. Each company had 270 personnel, giving the MRTC a capacity of 13,500 trainees. Like the BIRTC, the MRTC’s training cycle started out at eight weeks, but was later doubled; however, that cycle was often shortened if medics were needed quickly.