Let’s remember when FDR visited Fort Lewis, on this day in 1942 (September 22)
It’s kind of hard to believe that there was a time when a President can disappear from public for two weeks to take a secret tour of military bases, but that’s what happened 77 years ago.
As Duane Colt Denfeld wrote at HistoryLink:
On September 22, 1942, a special train carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) on a secret nationwide tour of World War II defense plants and military bases arrives at Fort Lewis near Tacoma. The president observes Fort Lewis soldiers, tours the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard near Bremerton, and views Boeing bombers being assembled in Seattle. The next day he visits an aluminum plant in Vancouver, Washington, and witnesses his daughter Anna Roosevelt Boettiger (1906–1975) christen a Liberty ship built in a record 10 days at the Kaiser shipyard in Portland, Oregon. The press has been ordered not to cover the two-week trip until the president is safely back in the White House. Unaware of the order a small Seattle weekly for Boeing union members prints a September 24 article on his visit, but the Secret Service is able intercept and destroy most of the 30,000 copies. Following the president’s return, three reporters on the tour will file general accounts, but given the delay and absence of local coverage the trip is underreported.
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