87th Air Base Wing leadership walk into history for professional development

Eleven senior leaders with the 87th Air Base Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, tour Fort Mott State Park in Pennsville, New Jersey Oct. 4, 2019. The visit to the 19th century defense fortification was coordinated by the wing’s historian, James Warrick. Warrick said the tour provided the leaders with a military-heritage themed professional development opportunity. Construction on Fort Mott, then known as the Battery at Finn’s Point, began in 1872. Original plans called for eleven gun emplacements for twenty cannons and a mortar battery with six emplacements. Fort Mott would help protect industrial centers further up the river as part of a three-fort coastal defense system. Troops were regularly stationed at the fort from 1897 to 1922. A caretaking detachment served at the fort from 1922 to 1943. In 1947, New Jersey acquired Fort Mott as a historic site and state park, which opened to the public in 1951. (U.S. Air Force photos by Shawn J. Jones)