Fort Gordon

Fort Gordon, formerly known as Camp Gordon, is a United States Army installation established in October 1941. It is the current home of the United States Army Signal Corps, United States Army Cyber Command, and the Cyber Center of Excellence. It was once the home of The Provost Marshal General School and Civil Affairs School. The fort is located southwest of Augusta, Georgia. One of the major components of the installation is Advanced Individual Training for Signal Corps military occupational specialties. Signals Intelligence has become more visible and comprises more and more of the fort's duties. The installation was recommended for renaming to Fort Eisenhower by The Naming Commission.[1][2] On 5 January 2023 William A. LaPlante, US under-secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment (USD (A&S)) directed the full implementation of the recommendations of the Naming Commission, DoD-wide.[3]

Fort Gordon
Augusta, Georgia
Official Shoulder Sleeve Insignia of the US Army Cyber Center of Excellence
Area86.87 sq mi
Site information
OwnerUnited States federal government
Controlled by United States Army
StatusActive
Websitehome.army.mil/gordon/
Site history
Built1941 (1941)
In useOctober 1941–present
Garrison information
Current
commander		Brigadier General Paul T. Stanton
GarrisonU.S. Army Garrison Fort Gordon
Occupants

Etymology

It is named after John Brown Gordon, a major general in the Confederate army during the Civil War.[4] Fort Gordon is one of the U.S. Army installations named for Confederate soldiers to be recommended for renaming by The Naming Commission.[1] Their recommendation is that the post be renamed "Fort Eisenhower";[2] the redesignation will occur in October 2023.[5][6]

History

World War I era
Camp Gordon, Atlanta circa 1917
The Human American Eagle, taken at Camp Gordon, 1918, 12,500 people

The United States Army 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 Division.[7] The division was composed of men from several different states, but men from Georgia made up almost half its number. Among the men trained at Camp Gordon, during that period, was the future Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Alvin York.[8] This camp was in operation until the sale of real estate and buildings was ordered in 1920. It was abandoned in September 1921. During WWI the US Army Camp Hancock was located in Augusta, Georgia in the general vicinity of the current Daniel Field. Camp Hancock was the home of the 28th Infantry Division from Pennsylvania. Camp Hancock was abandoned and turned over to a caretaker detachment 27 March 1919. From 1919 until 1941, there was no army installation named Camp Gordon in existence, nor was there an installation located near Augusta, Georgia.[9][10][11]

The 157th Depot Brigade was located at Camp Gordon, which received, organized and equipped troops in preparation for further assignments. The unit also received returning troops from war time service and completed their out processing and discharges.

Camp Gordon fielded football teams in 1917 and 1918 that competed in those NCAA college football seasons.

World War II era
Greetings from Fort Gordon, Georgia (Curt Teich large-letter postcard, 1943)

Camp Gordon was approved as the name for a WWII division training camp which began construction 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.[12]

Post-World War II
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.

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 Vietnam War, Fort Gordon was home to Camp Crockett, 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.[13] 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. Until 1974 Fort 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 area of the fort.

During the 1950s and into the 1970s Fort Gordon served as a basic training facility under the US Third Army. In 1974 the Army moved its main Signal School from Fort Monmouth NJ to Fort Gordon to consolidate all signal training in one location. The activity was designated the US Army Signal Center and Fort Gordon. At the same time, the Army moved the MP School to Fort McClellan AL and the Civil Affairs School to Fort Bragg NC. Since June 1986 Fort Gordon has been the home of the Signal Corps Regiment, the branch of the U.S. Army responsible for providing and maintaining information systems and communication networks. The US Army Signal School's primary purpose is to conduct specialized instruction for all Signal Corps military and civilian personnel. During the 1990s the post served as a home for deployable Signal and Military Intelligence units as well. The other major activity was health care, to include a Dental Lab along with a major Army Hospital, Dwight D. Eisenhower Medical Center. Fort Gordon is a diversified post where army Signal, Military Intelligence, Medical and now Cyber are housed. The senior mission partner however remains the US Army Cyber Center of Excellence.

In September 2014, the US Army established the US Army Cyber branch and Cyber School at Fort Gordon. Both the Signal School and Cyber School are subordinate elements of the US Army Cyber Center of Excellence, the headquarters which was formerly known as the US Army Signal Center of Excellence. The chiefs of the Signal and Cyber branches - the Chief of Signal and the Chief of Cyber - are dual hatted as the commandants of their respective schools and serve as the proponent chiefs for their branches and regiments.

In October 2016, Fort Gordon marked its 75th year as a continuous active US military installation near Augusta, GA. In 2018, the Installation Management Command became part of the Army Material Command and the installation facilities now belongs to AMC, with the TRADOC Cyber Center of Excellence commander serving as the senior mission partner in addition to his TRADOC duties of education and training.


Units and facilities
U.S. Soldiers stand ready for a cannon salute during the 7th Signal Command activation and reception 6 March 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 a major function, the post is home to the following active-duty tenant units:

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.

Training and current activities

Fort Gordon is home to the US Army Signal and Cyber Schools.[15] The Signal school focuses primarily on communications technology that is currently being utilized by the United States Army to provide the DODIN or Department of Defense Information Network, the platform for cyberspace operations. One MOS or Military Operational Specialty that is currently being trained at Fort Gordon by the Signal School are the Signal Support System Specialists whose MOS designation is 25U or 25 Uniform. Soldiers that can perform both Signal and Cyber related jobs are in high demand throughout the army and because of this Fort Gordon has a steady stream of soldiers training on base in those disciplines.[16]

Future activities and facilities
Fortitude Hall is the new headquarters of the US Army Cyber Command based at Fort Gordon.

Due to increases in the need and use of cyber technology the US Army decided to consolidate the United States Army Cyber Command into one location. Fort Gordon along with Fort George Meade were in the running to receive the command.[17] In December 2013 it was announced that Fort Gordon was selected.[18]

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.[19]

Proposed renaming

On 24 May 2022, the Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America submitted a recommendation to Congress that Fort Gordon be renamed to Fort Eisenhower, in commemoration of General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower.[20][21][22]

See also

References
  1. Levenson, Michael (11 June 2020). "These Are the 10 U.S. Army Installations Named for Confederates". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  2. "Recommendation". The Naming Commission. August 2022.
  3. "Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder Holds an On-Camera Press Briefing". US Department of Defense. 5 January 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  4. "History". U.S. Army Fort Gordon. United States Army. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  5. "Plans are coming together for Fort Gordon renaming ceremony". MSN. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  6. Scribner, Herb (25 March 2023). "6 Army bases named after Confederate leaders get dates for new names". Axios. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  7. Hudson, Paul Stephen; Mirza, Lora Pond (2017). "Transforming the Atlanta Home Front: Camp Gordon during World War I". Georgia Historical Quarterly. 101 (2): 147–165. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
  8. Capozzola, Christopher (2008). Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-19-533549-1.
  9. Camp Gordon historical marker
  10. Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War: Zone of the Interior Territorial Departments Tactical Divisions Organized in 1918 Posts, Camps, and Stations Volume 3, Part 2. (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington DC 1988) pages 821-822 and 826-828.
  11. The New Georgia Encyclopedia, World War I in Georgia: Federal Installations and War Camps. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  12. Dunn, Mark: Fort Gordon from the New Georgia Encyclopedia Online (10 June 2005)
  13. "Vietvet.org". Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  14. "NIOC Georgia History". NAVIOCOM Georgia. United States Navy. Retrieved 10 December 2008.
  15. Gallagher, Matt (27 March 2018). "Army of 01101111: The Making of a Cyber Battalion". Wired. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  16. Craig, Jeremy (1 December 2004). "Soldiers parachute in for special symposium Unit is trained to jump into combat areas and set up communications". The Florida Times-Union. Augusta, Georgia. Retrieved 1 December 2020 – via ProQuest.
  17. "The Army's cyber command facility with a Star Trek-inspired showroom may be falling apart". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  18. "Army Settles on Augusta For Cyber Forces Headquarters". nextgov.com. 20 December 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
  19. Fort Gordon, p. 117, at Google Books
  20. "Name Recommendations". The Naming Commission. n.d. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  21. Sellers, Maria (24 May 2022). "Federal panel picks Fort Eisenhower as new name for Fort Gordon". WRDW/WAGT. Augusta, Georgia. Archived from the original on 27 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022. Right now, a federal panel is in the process of recommending new names for nine different Army posts currently named after confederate officers. [...] Fort Gordon is on that list, named after Confederate General John Gordon. [...] The panel recommended renaming the post, Fort Eisenhower, in honor of Dwight D. Eisenhower, a World War II general who became the 34th U.S. president.
  22. Williams, Dave (26 May 2022). "Commission recommends new names for Georgia forts Gordon and Benning". Capitol Beat News Service. Georgia Press Educational Foundation. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022. A commission created to rename military bases currently named for historical figures with ties to the Confederacy is recommending renaming Fort Gordon near Augusta for former President and World War II military leader Dwight Eisenhower.
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