Michigan Has its Own Pentagon at Fort Custer

Unless you've seen it from the air, you'd likely never guess that Fort Custer has its very own pentagon shaped building just like the Pentagon in Northern Virginia near Washington, DC.

The building, located on the grounds of the Michigan National Guard's facility at Fort Custer in Augusta is the site's Education Center, which, according to the National Guard's website,

is a state of the art Training and Conference Center with on-site Billeting with 242 single billets, 5 Multipurpose Rooms, 4 classrooms and a 210 person auditorium that can be combined for a variety of training uses.

The Education Center is operated by the Michigan Army National Guard and the Regional Training Institute conducts Military Occupational Specialty, Non-Commissioned Officer Leadership Training and Officer Leadership Training Courses for Soldiers from all over the State, the Region and the Country.

The Fort Custer Pentagon, like its counterpart near the national capital has an inner courtyard, of which the 3D tool on Google Maps gives us an up-close view.

The building, which can be seen from M-96/Dickman Road doesn't give away its 5-sided appearance.

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But that's about as close as you'll be able to get. While some parts of Fort Custer have been decommissioned and can be driven like any other roadway including the once-home of NORAD, a building that could have once started or ended a nuclear war, the section containing the 'pentagon' building is part of an active Michigan National Guard facility which is restricted and guarded like any other military instillation with a checkpoint and ominous signs showing an image of a hand gun and warning deadly force is authorized for use in keeping out unauthorized visitors.