Camp Santiago

CAMPAMENTO SANTIAGO
Salinas, Puerto Rico
Campamento Santiago Joint Maneuver Training Center
Type	Military Reservation
Site information
Controlled by	Puerto Rico National Guard
Site history
Built	1940
In use	1940 - present
Garrison information
Garrison	92nd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade

Campamento Santiago (English: Camp Santiago) is a military training installation controlled by the Puerto Rico National Guard on 12,789 acres of land located in Salinas, Puerto Rico. This training facility was named posthumously after Medal of Honor recipient and Salinas, Puerto Rico native Specialist Four Héctor Santiago-Colón.

In 1940, the Federal government of the United States leased this military camp, then known as Camp Salinas, from the Government of Puerto Rico. In 1967, the U.S. Government licensed the camp to the Puerto Rico National Guard. Since that time the camp has grown from a tent city with very few permanent facilities to an installation of more than 300 buildings of approximately 715,680 square feet.

In 1941 the 65th Infantry Regiment 3rd Battalion was the first combat unit to train at this Southern Puerto Rico military camp before being sent to Panama to protect the Panama Canal during World War II.

In 1966 Col. Alberto A. Nido requested the construction of a range, the National Guard Bureau approved the construction at the cost of $10,000. Captain Gabriel I. Peñagarícano was assigned project officer and the U.S. Army Antilles Command caretakers of the camp, provided earth-moving equipment and personnel. In 1974, Campamento Santiago's air strip was renamed after administrative official Manuel Collazo.

The camp was named after Fourth Class Specialist Héctor Santiago Colón from Salinas, Puerto Rico, a posthumous Medal of Honor recipient. The soldier died at the Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam on June 28, 1968, while serving for Company B of the 5th Battalion of the 7th Regiment of Cavalry and became infamous for trying to shield his comrades from a grenade with his own body. The installation used for training of the Puerto Rico National Guard was formally named "Campamento Santiago" pursuant to an order issued by the General Quarters of the United States Army on July 1, 1975. This marked the second instance that a military installation in Puerto Rico was re-baptized after a local soldier after Campamento García in Vieques was named after Fernando García. Division General Carlos Chardón was actively involved in the process to propose the recognition. The Cal. 45 shooting range at Campanento Santiago was baptized after Col. Eduardo Andino, a distinguished pistol and rifle shooter that won a U.S. Army National Pistol Championship in 1922.