PWD History

Events leading to the establishment of extensive petroleum training facilities occurred in the early stages of World War II. Petroleum products required by the military prior to the war were relatively small and requirements were usually placed on industry. With the overnight growth of mechanized forces and extensive Air Force training programs Class III support became a major logistical problem. Sixty (60%) percent of all cargoes handled were petroleum.

Trained personnel for the military were practically nonexistent and facilities for training were not available. With the loss of so many engines due to the lack of quality fuel, the Army learned a valuable lesson, and immediately after WW II, plans were drafted to put the Army into business of training its own quality surveillance specialists.

To alleviate the situation, courses of instruction and facilities were established in the fall 1946 at Caven Point, New Jersey, under the jurisdiction of the New York Quartermaster Petroleum Field Office. The school was primarily staffed with instructors and highly qualified technical personnel from the petroleum fields of the Midwest. In July 1954 the Caven Point installation was phased out, moved to Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia, and became the Petroleum Department of the Quartermaster School.

Water treatment training had been conducted under the direction of the Engineer School, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. In 1981, the decision was made to transfer proponency to the Quartermaster School and combine career management fields with petroleum because water was a liquid logistics function. Final transfer was completed in September 1984 and training began at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. The first Water Purification class under the Quartermaster School graduated 19 December 1984.