Arkansas was the home of two newly built Army Posts; Camp Pike located in Pulaski County and Camp Eberts located 1.4 miles northwest of Lonoke. Both training facilities were established in 1917 as a result of the United States’ entry into the Great War, which we all now known as World War I. The population of these camps were one and half times the size of Little Rock when the Pandemic struck and both camps were overwhelmed by this epidemic.

There were 52,000 men at Camp Pike. The camp was sealed and quarantined, and the commandant ordered that the names of the dead not be released to the press, so that a panic would not breakout. The Post hospital was overflowing with soldiers who were sick with the “Spanish Flu.” In early September, the Camp Pike hospital saw an average of 17 new patients a day with acute bronchitis. Then the number soared. During an eight day stretch beginning on September 20, the Post hospital began admitting up to 1,000 men a day, which was more than the 2,000 bed facility could handle. These emergency conditions required 1,400 beds to be placed in a cleared out barrack and hanger. Plus, the make matters worse, 62 of the 240 medical personal contracted influenza as well. By the end of September, the hospital on Post had 797 patients. By the end of the epidemic, Camp Pike and Camp Eberts lost 466 soldiers. During the period of September 20 to October 19, there were 11,899 cases of influenza reported.

http://arngmuseum.com/exhibits/exhibit-1918-influenza/

Clarence Eugene Owen