Fort Gordon

Fort Gordon, formerly known as Camp Gordon, is a United States Army installation established southwest of Augusta, Georgia 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. 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.[2][3] 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.[4] The redesignation will occur 27 October 2023.[lower-alpha 1]

"Camp Gordon" redirects here. Not to be confused with the World War I Army installation near Atlanta, which is now DeKalb–Peachtree Airport.

Fort Gordon (Fort Eisenhower)
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/Eisenhower/
Site history
Built1941 (1941)
In useOctober 1941–present
Garrison information
Current
commander		Major General Paul T. Stanton[1]
GarrisonU.S. Army Garrison Fort Eisenhower
Occupants

Etymology

The installation was named after John Brown Gordon, a major general in the Confederate army during the Civil War and the United States Senator from and Governor of Georgia after the American Civil War. [6] Fort Gordon is one of the U.S. Army installations named for Confederate soldiers to be recommended for renaming by The Naming Commission.[2] Their recommendation was that the post be renamed "Fort Eisenhower";[3] the redesignation will occur 27 October 2023.[7][8][9]

Background

A different Camp Gordon existed in Chamblee, Georgia near Atlanta during World War I.

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.[10][11][12]

From 1919 until 1941, there was no army installation named Camp Gordon in existence, nor was there an installation located near Augusta, Georgia.[10][11][12]

History

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.[13]

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, the post 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.[14] Between 1966 and 68, approximately 2,200 Signal Officers were trained at the post'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 the post 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 Eisenhower 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.

Eisenhower method

As Supreme Commander in World War II, General Eisenhower prioritized the Allies' actions using a maxim which he later popularized as President of Columbia: "The important things are seldom urgent; the urgent things are seldom important; however things can be both urgent and important" (the Eisenhower box). One of Eisenhower's requirements was that a report to him fit on a single sheet of paper. This allowed Eisenhower to manage his workload.

Consolidating operations and facilities

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.[15] In December 2013 it was announced that Fort Gordon was selected.[16]

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

Fort Eisenhower 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 operations
Fortitude Hall is the new headquarters of the US Army Cyber Command based at Fort Eisenhower.

Fort Eisenhower is home to the US Army Signal and Cyber Schools.[18] 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 Eisenhower 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 Eisenhower has a steady stream of soldiers training on base in those disciplines.[19]

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.[20]

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 the post be renamed to Fort Eisenhower, in commemoration of General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States.[21][22][23]

Redesignation

The Cyber Center of Excellence is to be redesignated Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Eisenhower 27 October 2023 at Barton Field.[24]

See also

Notes and references
  1. Redesignation to Fort Eisenhower was on 27 October 2023. [5]
  1. "Major General Paul T. Stanton (USA)". General Officer Management Office. Archived from the original on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  2. Levenson, Michael (11 June 2020). "These Are the 10 U.S. Army Installations Named for Confederates". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  3. "Recommendation". The Naming Commission. August 2022. Archived from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  4. "Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder Holds an On-Camera Press Briefing". US Department of Defense. 5 January 2023. Archived from the original on 20 April 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  5. (27 Oct 2023) Fort Eisenhower redesignation ceremony
  6. "History". U.S. Army Fort Gordon. United States Army. Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  7. "Plans are coming together for Fort Gordon renaming ceremony". MSN. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  8. Scribner, Herb (25 March 2023). "6 Army bases named after Confederate leaders get dates for new names". Axios. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
  9. Robert Philpot (22 Mar 2023) Exchange Teams Prepare for Big Changes as 9 Army Posts Get New Names Archived 8 June 2023 at the Wayback Machine
  10. Camp Gordon Archived 8 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine historical marker
  11. 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.
  12. The New Georgia Encyclopedia, World War I in Georgia: Federal Installations and War Camps Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  13. Dunn, Mark: Fort Gordon from the New Georgia Encyclopedia Online (10 June 2005)
  14. "Vietvet.org". Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  15. "The Army's cyber command facility with a Star Trek-inspired showroom may be falling apart". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 13 May 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  16. "Army Settles on Augusta For Cyber Forces Headquarters". nextgov.com. 20 December 2013. Archived from the original on 5 April 2022. Retrieved 22 December 2013.
  17. "NIOC Georgia History". NAVIOCOM Georgia. United States Navy. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 10 December 2008.
  18. 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.
  19. 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. ProQuest 4144262955. Archived from the original on 18 October 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2020 – via ProQuest.
  20. Fort Gordon, p. 117, at Google Books
  21. "Name Recommendations". The Naming Commission. n.d. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. Staff, WRDW/WAGT (11 Jul 2023) Date set for renaming of Fort Gordon; new logo announced Archived 18 October 2023 at the Wayback Machine 27 October 2023 at Barton Field
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