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Fort Wayne began as a garrison, and for twenty-five years the post, not any civil government, was the settlement: Anthony Wayne's Legion reached Kekionga on 17 September 1794, and the stockade finished that October stood where Berry and Clay streets now meet. This section keeps the military record from that ground forward: the three stockades and the Army's departure in 1819; the militia companies that carried the county's defense between garrisons; the 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry, the Nightfighters, whose lineage the state carries back to 1846; the armories, petitioned for, built and outgrown from Clinton Street to Cook Road; and Baer Field, the wartime installation Fort Wayne was unusual in asking for, bought with local notes and bank money in the winter of 1941. The city's wars were mostly fought elsewhere. Its soldiers, and its ground, are here.
The forts as posts · three stockades, one garrison, 1794–1819
22 October 1794 — 19 April 1819
A post before it was a town: Fort Wayne began as a standing garrison, and for twenty-five years the post — not any civil government — was the settlement. General Anthony Wayne's Legion reached Kekionga on 17 September 1794, and…
The militia years · the county's standing companies
1824 — the nineteenth century
Citizen soldiers between garrisons: When the Army left in 1819, Allen County's defense became what it was everywhere on the Indiana frontier: the militia. Under Indiana law the able-bodied men of the county were enrolled in…
The Nightfighters · the 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry
Headquartered in Fort Wayne since 1947
The standing battalion: Fort Wayne's Army National Guard battalion is the 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry Regiment — the "Nightfighters," motto "Follow Us" — today a battalion of the 76th Mobile Brigade Combat Team (the "Nighthawk…
The armories · Clinton Street to Cook Road
1930 — present
A hall for the soldiers: For its first century as a Guard town Fort Wayne had no armory worthy of the name, and its veterans said so in writing. A petition preserved in the county record — signed by the Union Veteran Legion's…
Baer Field · the wartime installation
1941 — 1946
The base the city asked for: Baer Field was unusual among wartime bases in that Fort Wayne requested it. The city took options on some 700 acres southwest of town; when the War Department decided in January 1941 to build if the…
The Blacksnakes · the 122nd Fighter Wing as a standing wing
1946 — present
Fighters in the Fort: The 122nd Fighter Wing, the Indiana Air National Guard wing stationed at Fort Wayne Air National Guard Base on the east side of Fort Wayne International Airport, traces its lineage to the 358th Fighter…
The rest of the wartime footprint · what was, and was not, here
1941 — 1945
One installation: Baer Field was Fort Wayne's Second World War installation, and in the sources consulted it stands alone. No separate ordnance depot, general hospital, or prisoner-of-war camp in Fort Wayne itself is documented…
The defense city · an overview
1939 — present
Why the work came here: Fort Wayne's defense industry grew from the same base as its civil industry — magnet wire, motors and electrical manufacturing, deep in the interior, on three railroads' and three rivers' ground — and from…
Magnavox · the defense-electronics house
1944 — 1997 and its successors
Radios, sonobuoys, and the squad radio: Magnavox's commercial record — the move to Fort Wayne in 1930–1932, the loudspeaker and console business, the Odyssey — belongs to the Business record. Its defense line is this chapter's.…
General Electric · superchargers, then engine controls
1938 — 2000 and its successor
The turbosupercharger plant: GE's Fort Wayne Works — its civil record from Jenney Electric forward is in the Business record and its Broadway campus in the Architecture record — was asked as early as 1938 to develop motors for…
From Farnsworth to L3Harris · the imager line
1949/1951 — present
Television's factory becomes the weather eye: The second great Fort Wayne defense line begins with Philo T. Farnsworth. His Television and Radio Corporation, established in Fort Wayne in 1939 on the Capehart…
BAE Systems and Raytheon · the present primes
2000 — present
Controls, radios, and the aftermarket: BAE Systems' Fort Wayne presence dates, by the company's own account, to the 1980s — the GE aircraft-controls plant of the entry above, which came to BAE through Lockheed Martin in 2000. The…
Veterans' institutions · the posts in brief
1867 — present
Foundings only: This entry records the veterans' organizations as standing institutions — names and founding dates. Their civic and charitable work belongs to the Charities record and is not repeated here. Fort Wayne's first…
The machinery · enrollment, draft boards, recruiting
1861 — present
The paper front: Between the militia muster and the modern recruiting station stands the machinery that turned Fort Wayne's men into soldiers on paper, and it was always local. In April 1861 the enrollment of Civil War volunteers…
The military in Fort Wayne today
The present establishment
Six flags in the region, three addresses in the city: The standing establishment, as the Northeast Indiana Base Community Council — the volunteer body formed in 2011 to link the region's military and civilian communities — lists…
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