Fort Gordon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Fort Gordon |
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|---|---|
| eponym: MG John Brown Gordon, CSA | |
| Augusta, Georgia | |
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| Area | 86.87 sq mi |
| Site information | |
| Owner | United States Federal Government |
| Controlled by |  United States Army |
| Status | Active |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1941 |
| In use | October 1941–present |
| Garrison information | |
| Current commander |
Brigadier General Paul T. Stanton |
| Garrison | U.S. Army Garrison Fort Gordon |
| Occupants |
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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.
It is named after John Brown Gordon, a Major General in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. Fort Gordon is one of the U.S. Army installations named for Confederate soldiers to be renamed by 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.
Contents
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.
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.
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.
Units and facilities
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:
- 15th Regimental Signal Brigade
- 369th Signal Battalion
- 442nd Signal Battalion
- 551st Signal Battalion
- Ordnance Training Detachment - Gordon
- 35th Signal Brigade
- 63rd Signal Battalion
- 67th Signal Battalion
- 50th Signal Battalion (Attached to Fort Bragg, NC)
- 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing
- 513th Military Intelligence Brigade
- 202nd Military Intelligence Battalion
- 297th Military Intelligence Battalion
- 35th Military Police Detachment
- 706th Military Intelligence Group
- 707th Military Intelligence Battalion
- 434th Signal Corps Band
- 7th Signal Command
- 359th Signal Brigade
- 92nd Engineers Combat Heavy
- 206th Military Intelligence Battalion
- 31st Intelligence Squadron
- 324th Signal Battalion
- Cryptologic Support Battalion
- Naval Network Warfare Command
- 338th Training Squadron
- Cyber Battle Laboratory (CBL)
- The post also hosts a joint-service command, National Security Agency/Central Security Service Georgia, formerly known as the Gordon Regional Security Operations Center. The Army's 706th MI Group works there alongside units from the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, Naval Network Warfare Command (Navy Information Operations Command, Georgia), Marine Corps Intelligence Activity as well as civilians from the National Security Agency (NSA).
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. In December 2013 it was announced that Fort Gordon was selected.
Berlin Wall display
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.
33°24′48″N 82°8′7″W / 33.41333°N 82.13528°W
Images for kids
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The Human American Eagle, taken at Camp Gordon, 1918, 12,500 people
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Fortitude Hall is the new headquarters of the US Army Cyber Command based at Fort Gordon.
