Camp Claiborne was the first training ground for the 34th Infantry Division, a National Guard division from North and South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa known as the Red Bulls, which became the first American contingent selected to cross the Atlantic into what became the European Theater of Operations, and whose volunteers in Great Britain supplied 80 percent of the 1st Ranger Battalion under Captain William O. Darby, later known as Darby's Rangers. The 82nd Infantry Division was reactivated there on March 25, 1942, under Major General Omar Bradley, and on August 15, 1942, General Matthew Ridgway announced at Camp Claiborne that it would become the nation's first airborne division, with the 325th and 326th Infantry Regiments becoming its glider infantry. On August 16, 1942, the 101st Airborne Division was established at Camp Claiborne with officers and non-commissioned officers from the 82nd Airborne Division, and Major General William C. Lee told the new division that it had no history but had a rendezvous with destiny. In 1942, the Army Service Forces Training Center was established there to train recruits in basic combat survival and engineering support specialties, while engineer general service regiments and battalions handled construction, repair, and maintenance behind the front lines. The 711th and related Engineer Railway Operating Battalions at Camp Claiborne, the first of their kind in the Army, built the Claiborne-Polk Military Railroad, the nation's only government-owned railroad in operation. Camp Claiborne was regarded as Louisiana's third largest city, housed up to 50,000 soldiers, required a large military and civilian workforce, and included four service clubs that served as social centers with hostesses, open-house dances, and three libraries.