Fort Gordon



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 Signal Center and was once the home of "The Provost Marshal General School" (Military Police). The fort is located in Augusta, Georgia. 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.

Fort Gordon and the Signal Center is commanded by Major General LaWarren V. Patterson.

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 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 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.

During the Vietnam War, Fort Gordon was home to Camp Crocket, an area of the post conducting 8-week infantry training courses for soldiers in line to attend 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.

Active-duty units and facilities
Fort Gordon's technical name is the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence & Fort Gordon, or USASCE&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, home to the 73d Ordnance (TRADOC), 369th Signal (TRADOC), 447th Signal (TRADOC) and 551st Signal Battalions.
 * 35th Signal Brigade, home to the 63rd Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 67th and 50th Signal Battalion. 50th Signal Battalion is current on detached duty to Fort Bragg, NC (formerly the 93rd Signal Brigade)
 * 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing
 * 513th Military Intelligence Brigade, home to Task Force Lightning and the 202nd and 297th MI Battalions
 * 35th Military Police Detachment
 * 706th Military Intelligence Group, home of the 707th MI Battalion
 * 434th Signal Corps Band
 * 369th Signal Battalion
 * 447th Signal Battalion
 * 551st Signal Battalion
 * 73rd Ordnance Battalion
 * 7th Signal Command
 * 63rd Signal Battalion
 * 67th Signal Battalion
 * 359th Signal Brigade
 * 92nd Engineers Combat Heavy
 * 202nd MI Battalion
 * 297th MI Battalion
 * 116th MI Group
 * 206th MI Battalion
 * 31st Intelligence Squadron
 * 324th Signal Battalion
 * Cryptologic Support Battalion
 * Navy Information Operations Command
 * 338th Training Squadron
 * 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), 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.

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.