Fort Eisenhower
| Fort Gordon | |
|---|---|
| Georgia | |
   Shoulder sleeve insignia of units stationed at Fort Gordon | |
| Site information | |
| Owner | United States Federal Government |
| Controlled by | U.S. Army |
| Site history | |
| In use | 1941-present |
| Garrison information | |
| Past commanders | BG Jeffrey W. Foley |
| Garrison | U.S. Army Signal School 35th Signal Brigade 513th Military Intelligence Brigade 116th Military Intelligence Group Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center Navy Information Operations Command, Georgia |
| Occupants | Approx. 30,000 from various branches, as well as govt contractors. |
Fort Gordon is a United States Army Installation and the current home of the United States Army Signal Corps and Signal Center and was once the home of "The Provost Marshal General School" (Military Police). The fort is located in Richmond, Jefferson, McDuffie, and Columbia counties, Georgia. The main componment of the post is the Advanced Individual Training for Signal Corps military occupational specialites. In 1966-68 the Army's Signal Officer Candidate School (located at Fort Monmouth during World War II and the Korean conflict) graduated over 2,200 Signal officers. Fort Gordon trains more military personnel than any other training center of the U.S. Army.[1]
Increasingly, military signals intelligence has become more visible and comprises more and more of the fort's duties.
Fort Gordon and the Signal Center is commanded by Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Foley. On July 17, 2007, Brig. Gen. Randolph Strong handed over command as he assumed a new position as Director of Architecture, Operations, Networks, and Space, in the Department of the Army’s Office of the Chief Information Officer and G6. Brig. Gen. Foley last served as Director of Architecture, Operations, Networks, and Space, in the Department of the Army’s Office of the Chief Information Officer and G6.
History
Approved for construction in July, 1941, Fort Gordon was originally called 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. On March 21, 1956, the post was renamed Fort Gordon.
World War I Era
This facility near Augusta Georgia is not to be confused with the original Camp Gordon, a World War I basic training facility located in Dekalb County, (Atlanta) Georgia, near the City of Chamblee. That original Camp Gordon was the originating base for the creation of the 82d Infantry Division (nicknamed the All American Division) which later became the 82d Airborne Division. That Camp Gordon was the location where Pvt. Alvin York received his basic training not the Fort Gordon near Richmond County (Augusta), Georgia.[2]
World War II Era
In July 1941 the U.S. War Department approved a contract to construct facilities on a new training area 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 December 9, 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.[1]
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.
During the 1950s through the 1970s Fort Gordon served as a basic-training facility. 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.
Active-duty units and facilities
Fort Gordon's technical name is the U.S. Army Signal Center & Fort Gordon, or USASCFG. While the TRADOC school itself is the primary function, the post is home to the following active-duty tenant units:
- 15th Regimental Signal Brigade, home to the 73d Ordnance (TRADOC), 369th Signal (TRADOC), 447th Signal (TRADOC) and 551st Signal Battalions.
- 35th Signal Brigade, home to the 63d Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 67th and 50th Signal Battalions (formerly the 93rd Signal Brigade)
- 513th Military Intelligence Brigade, home to Task Force Lightning and the 202nd and 297th MI Battalions
- 35th Military Police Detachment
- 116th Military Intelligence Group, home of the 206th MI Battalion
The post also hosts a joint-service command, National Security Agency/Central Security Service Georgia, formerly known as the Gordon Regional Security Operations Center. It is a SIGINT collection center for a geographic area including the Middle East. The Army's 116th MI Group works there alongside units from the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, Naval Network Warfare Command (Navy Information Operations Command, Georgia),[3] 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), home of the Southeast Regional Medical Command (SERMC) 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. Under SERMC, the hospital is responsible for military hospital care from Kentucky to Puerto Rico.
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 Military Police Corps in the Brems Barracks region of the fort, which was also later used in the 1980s for training radioteletype operators.
External links
(33°24′48″N 82°8′7″W / 33.41333°N 82.13528°W[4])Geo-Links for Fort Gordon
References
- ^ a b Dunn, Mark (6/10/2005). "New Georgia Encyclopedia: Fort Gordon". Retrieved 2008-02-08.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=14570
- ^ "NIOC Georgia History". NAVIOCOM Georgia. United States Navy. Retrieved 2008-12-10.
- ^ http://wikimapia.org/#lat=33.355767&lon=-82.220306&z=11&l=0&m=m&v=2
External links
- Fort Gordon Pictorial History Book
- Fort Gordon
- WW1 account of Life at Camp Gordon"Letters from Ward B Scripture of the 328th Infantry to his Mother during WW1"
- "NSA Seeks to Pour Hundreds of Millions Into Surveillance Infrastructure," The Peacock Report, April 20, 2006
- Fort Gordon
- Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center
- CSRA Alliance for Fort Gordon - Group that sought to keep Fort Gordon open during the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure round
- U.S. Army Signal Corps OCS Association
- Fort Gordon Directorate of Morale, Welfare and Recreation
- New Georgia Encyclopedia information
