Year-End Review: Camp Shelby gets new commander, begins expansion of maintenance site in 2022

CAMP SHELBY Miss. (WDAM) - It was a busy year for the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center in 2022.

A new post leader, Col. William “Lee” Henry, took command earlier this month, and in October, a groundbreaking was held for a $15.5 million expansion of Camp Shelby’s Maneuver Area Training Equipment Site (MATES).

Also, the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum hosted new exhibits on two Mississippians who died in defense of the nation.

In November, an exhibit honoring Marine Lance Corporal Casey Casanova of McComb was dedicated.

She was killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq in 2008 and was the first female service member from Mississippi killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“I don’t think people really understand you can’t take anything in this life for granted,” said Paula Carruth, Casanova’s mother. “This (museum) is all the Mississippians that served in these wars, and Casey is a Mississippian; she should be amongst these heroes.”

The museum honored Marine Henry Lee Keen of Braxton in May during its annual Memorial Day ceremony.

Keen was killed in action in World War Two at the Battle of Iwo Jima.

He is also the subject of an exhibit at the museum.

“Memorial Day is an important time for us to remember not only those who paid the ultimate sacrifice but the families they left behind, to continue to mourn year after year,” said Tommy Lofton, director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum.

Also, over the summer months, nearly 30,000 servicemen and women from all branches of the Armed Forces took part in annual training at Camp Shelby.

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