ABSTRACT
Located in Burlington County, in relatively rural South Jersey, Fort Dix is named for Major General John Adams Dix, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Civil War. During the inter-war period, Camp Dix was a training facility for active-duty army, Army Reserve, and National Guard units. Fort Dix expanded rapidly during the Vietnam War. A mock Vietnam village was constructed and future “grunts” received Southeast Asian- specific training before being deployed. The left-leaning magazine Mother Jones became perhaps the most vocal critic of the arrest and conviction of the so-called Fort Dix Six. If the Fort Dix Six were terrorist wannabes who took their fantasies too far and are paying a heavy price, poor Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab most likely will go down in the history of international terrorism as something of a buffoon and the butt of unnumbered jokes.
