Fort Gordon

Fort Gordon
Augusta, Georgia
Site information
Owner United States Federal Government
Controlled by  United States Army
Site history
In use July 1917–present
Garrison information
Current
commander		 Maj. Gen. John B. Morrison, Jr.
Garrison U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence
Occupants 15th Regimental Signal Brigade
35th Signal Brigade
513th Military Intelligence Brigade
480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing
706th Military Intelligence Group
Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center
Navy Information Operations Command, Georgia
Fort Gordon, circa 1917
SP5 Lawrence E. Blackman (Darlington, SC) Hq & Hq Co, USASTC, receives the first typhus shot administered by a jet injector at Fort Gordon by Mr. John R. Gordon, representative of the R.P. Scherer Corp., Detroit, Michigan, August 1959.

Fort Gordon, formerly known as Camp Gordon, is a United States Army installation established in 1917. It is the current home of the United States Army Signal Corps and Cyber Center of Excellence and was once the home of The Provost Marshal General School. The fort is located next to Augusta, Georgia to the southwest of the city. The main component of the post is the Advanced Individual Training for Signal Corps military occupational specialities. In 1966–68 the Army's Signal Officer Candidate School (located at Fort Monmouth during World War II and the Korean War) graduated over 2,200 Signal officers. Signals Intelligence has become more visible and comprises more and more of the fort's duties.

History

World War I era

Georgia established many war-training camps during World War I. Chamblee, northeast of Atlanta, was selected for one of the state's largest army cantonments. It was named Camp Gordon in honor of John Brown Gordon, who was a major general in the Confederate army, a Georgia governor, a U.S. senator, and a businessman. The camp opened in July 1917, becoming a training site and home of the famous 82nd Airborne Division. The division was composed of men from several different states, but men from Georgia made up almost half its number.[1]

World War II era

Camp Gordon was approved for reconstruction in July 1941. The U.S. War Department approved a contract to construct facilities on a new training area near Augusta, in Richmond County, Georgia that had been selected several months earlier. A groundbreaking and flag-raising ceremony took place in October. In response to the attack on Pearl Harbor Colonel Herbert W. Schmidt, camp commander, moved his small staff from his temporary office in the Augusta post office building to the unfinished headquarters building at Camp Gordon on 9 December 1941 and the 4th Infantry Division began to establish operations there.

The post was home to three divisions during the war: the 4th Infantry, the 26th Infantry, and the 10th Armored. From October 1943 to January 1945 Camp Gordon served as an internment camp for foreign prisoners of war. From May 1945 until April 1946 the U.S. Army Personnel and Separation Center processed nearly 86,000 personnel for discharge from the Army.[2]

Post-World War II

From early 1946 to June 1947, the U.S. Army Disciplinary Barracks for convicted criminals was located at Camp Gordon, and the installation was scheduled for deactivation. In September 1948 the Army relocated the Military Police School from Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, to Camp Gordon, and in October 1948 a Signal Corps training center was activated.

On 21 March 1956, the post was renamed Fort Gordon.

During the 1950s and into the 1980s Fort Gordon served as a basic-training camp. It also provided advanced individual training for troops. Since June 1985 Fort Gordon has housed the U.S. Signal Corps, the branch of the U.S. Army responsible for providing and maintaining information systems and communication networks. The Signal Corps training center's primary purpose is to conduct specialized instruction for all Signal Corps military and civilian personnel.

During the Vietnam War, Fort Gordon was home to Camp Crocket, an area of the post conducting 9-week advance airborne infantry training courses for soldiers in line to attend the remaining 3 weeks of Airborne training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and then be assigned to Airborne units in Vietnam. The location closed as the war ended and today the site is overgrown with pine trees.[3]

Units and facilities

U.S. Soldiers stand ready for a cannon salute during the 7th Signal Command activation and reception March 6, 2009, at Fort Gordon, Ga 090306-A-NF756-001

Fort Gordon's official name is the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence & Fort Gordon, or CyberCoE&FG. While the TRADOC school itself is the primary function, the post is home to the following active-duty tenant units:

Considered a mission partner on Fort Gordon is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center (DDEAMC) as well as a dental laboratory. The facility treats active duty military and their families, as well as many of the military retiree community in the Central Savannah River Area.

Fort Gordon has approximately 30,000 military and civilian employees and currently has an estimated $1.1 billion economic impact on the Augusta-Richmond County economy.

Between 1966 and 68, approximately 2,200 Signal Officers were trained at Fort Gordon's Signal Officer Candidate School (OCS), before all US Army branch OCSs were merged with the Infantry OCS at Fort Benning, Georgia.

During the Vietnam War, Ft. Gordon was also a training location for the Military Police Corps, located in the World War II wooden barracks corridor between Brainard Ave. and Avenue Of The States, and in the Brems Barracks region of the fort (which was also later used in the 1980s for training radioteletype operators).

Future activities and facilities

Due to increases in the need and use of cyber technology the US Army is consolidating the United States Army Cyber Command into one location. Fort Gordon along with Fort George Meade were in the running to receive the command.[5] In December 2013 it was announced that Fort Gordon was selected.[6]

Berlin Wall display

Fort Gordon's display of sections of the Berlin Wall

In Freedom Park, located off Rice Road, across from Barton Field, is a display of two sections of the Berlin Wall, as well as a sign from the wall.[7]

References

  1. ↑ The New Georgia Encyclopedia, World War I in Georgia: Federal Installations and War Camps. Retrieved 2011-05-05.
  2. ↑ Dunn, Mark (10 June 2005). "New Georgia Encyclopedia: Fort Gordon". Retrieved 2008-02-08.
  3. ↑ "Vietvet.org". Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  4. ↑ "NIOC Georgia History". NAVIOCOM Georgia. United States Navy. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
  5. ↑ "The Army's cyber command facility with a Star Trek-inspired showroom may be falling apart". Washington Post. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "Army Settles On Augusta For Cyber Forces Headquarters". nextgov.com. 20 December 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
  7. ↑ Fort Gordon, p. 117, at Google Books
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33°24′48″N 82°8′7″W / 33.41333°N 82.13528°W / 33.41333; -82.13528Coordinates: 33°24′48″N 82°8′7″W / 33.41333°N 82.13528°W / 33.41333; -82.13528

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