York native Jacob L. Devers’ name still in service at Fort Knox, Ky.
York County connections run deep.
Vacationing in my Brandenburg, Ky., hometown recently, I ran across a Devers Youth Center advertisement in a newspaper from nearby Fort Knox.
The ad flagged a number of summer camps at the center: Wilderness enrichment, fine arts, Native American Week summer enrichment programs, among other things.
I wondered whether the youths at the center — tagged as a “place for Middle School Teens grades 6-12 to hang out” — had an idea about the center’s namesake.
Jacob Loucks Devers, a York native, was commander of Fort Knox early in World War II and later went on to earn four stars as the commander of an Army group invading France and Germany… .
He was an avid sportsman all his life, quarterbacking his William Penn High School football team. In fact, after the war, he attributed the Allied victory to the teamwork, endurance and leadership qualities developed on America’s playing fields.
Then again, some present-day Fort Knox students might have figured out Devers’ achievements.
One of the Devers Youth Center’s camps is called “Smart Girls Camp.”
