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| US Army Infantry Center & Fort Benning & the US Army Infantry School | |
|---|---|
  US Army Infantry Center Flag and US Army Infantry School Flag |
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| Active | |
| Country | USA |
| Branch | Infantry |
| Type | Garrison and School |
| Motto | Home of the Infantry |
| Colors | Blue and White |
Fort Benning is a United States Army post, located southwest of Columbus in Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties in Georgia and Russell County, Alabama. It is part of the Columbus, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Fort Benning is a self-sustaining military community supporting in excess of 100,000 military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees, and civilian employees on a daily basis. It is a power projection platform, and possesses the capability to deploy combat-ready forces by air, rail, and highway. Fort Benning is the home of the United States Army Infantry School; the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation; the headquarters of the 75th Ranger Regiment along with the 3rd Ranger Battalion; the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized); the 14th Combat Support Hospital; and many additional tenant units.
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Fort Benning is named for Brigadier General Henry L. Benning, a Confederate army general and a native of Columbus, Georgia. It was established in October 1918 as Camp Benning, It was assigned permant status in 1918. The base covers 182,000 acres (737 km²). During World War II, Fort Benning included 197,159 acres (797.87 km²), and had billeting space for 3,970 officers and 94,873 enlisted persons. The Chattahoochee River runs through Fort Benning, which straddles the Georgia/Alabama state line.
Fort Benning's first mission was to provide Basic Training for units participating in World War I. With the end of that war, Benning was closed until the Army could find another use. The first Tenant Unit to arrive was the Infantry School, which is still open. The Civilian Conservation Corps completed the wooden permanent buildings in the 1930s, and Fort Benning expanded from that point forward.
During World War II (WWII) Fort Benning became home to the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, known as the Triple Nickel. Their training began in December 1943. This represented an important milestone for black Americans. The battalion, later expanded to become the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, was trained at Fort Benning but did not deploy overseas. The specialized duties of the Triple Nickel were primarily firefighting duties as parachute smoke jumpers. The 555th was secretly deployed to the Pacific Northwest in the United States in response to an anticipated threat. There was concern that forest fires were being deliberately set by the Japanese military using incendiary balloons as an attempt to produce terror among the citizens. The 555th successfully completed over 1,000 missions as smoke jumpers and thwarted the enemy's attempts to spread terror within the United States.
Fort Benning is where the US 2nd Armored Division was formed.
The Airborne School on Main Post has three 249-foot (76 m) drop towers called "Control Descent Towers". They are used to train paratroopers. The towers were modeled after the parachute towers at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Only three towers stand today; the fourth tower was toppled by a tornado on March 14th, 1954.
The 4th Infantry Division, first of four divisions committed by the United States to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, reorganized and completed its basic training at Fort Benning (Sand Hill and Harmony Church areas} from October 1950 to May 1951, when it deployed to Germany for five years.
Fort Benning was the site of the Scout dog school of the United States during the Vietnam War, where the dogs trained to detect ambushes in enemy terrain got their initial training, before being transferred to Vietnam for further advanced courses.[1]
Between 1963 and 1965, in Fort Benning, the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles received CIA training in explosives and sabotage[2].
In the School of the Americas, located in Fort Benning since 1984, were trained many international military officers, some of which were responsible for crimes and murders like Manuel Noriega (U.S.-supported dictator in Panama between 1983 to 1989), Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos (responsible for massacres in San Salvador, like Central American University's massacre in 1989). Graduates of the SOA also include men such as Hugo Banzer Suárez, Leopoldo Galtieri, , Efraín Ríos Montt, Vladimiro Montesinos, Guillermo Rodríguez, Omar Torrijos, Roberto Viola, Roberto D'Aubuisson, Victor Escobar and Juan Velasco Alvarado.[3] [4] Because many of its students have been associated with death squads, and coups in Latin American countries, the school's acronym is reparsed by its detractors as the "School of the Assassins".
The post is home to the United States Army Infantry School as well as the Army's airborne (parachuting) school. Fort Benning is the primary training installation for all U.S. Army infantry enlistees (11X). Enlisted infantry soldiers undergo their Basic Combat Training, and Advanced Individual Training in a combined fourteen week course called One Station Unit Training (OSUT). The 198th Infantry Brigade, formerly the Infantry Training Brigade (ITB), has the mission of transforming civilians into disciplined infantrymen (11B)and indirect-fire infantrymen (11C)that possess the Army Values, fundamental soldier skills, physical fitness, character, confidence, commitment, and the Warrior Ethos to become adaptive and flexible infantrymen ready to accomplish the mission of the Infantry. The 192d Infantry Brigade also conducts Army Basic Combat Training for non-combat arms enlisted soldiers, who go on to their occupational schools (AIT) following graduation from BCT. The 192d Infantry Brigade consists of two Basic Combat Training battalions, one Infantry One Station Unit Training (OSUT) Battalion and the 30th Adjutant General Battalion (Reception).
There are four main cantonment areas on Fort Benning. They are the Main Post area, Kelley Hill, Sand Hill and Harmony Church.
Main Post houses various garrison and smaller FORSCOM units of Fort Benning such as 36th Engineer Group, 988th Military Police Company, the 43rd Engineer Battalion, and the 29th Infantry Regiment, as well as a number of TRADOC-related tenants, e.g. the Officer Candidate School, the Non-Commissioned Officers Academy, conducting courses such as the Warriors Leader Course (formerly known as Primary Leadership Development Course), the Basic Officer Leader's Course II, and the Airborne School. Adjacent to Infantry Hall (the post headquarters building), is the Ranger Memorial, an outdoors monument to all Rangers, present and past.
Kelley Hill houses the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized). Ft Benning is famous for being one of the most challenging posts in the United States Army. Part of this reputation comes from the conditions present on Kelley Hill. The 3rd Infantry Division has always been noteworthy for its discipline.
Kelley Hill houses the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division also known as the sledgehammer brigade because of the sledgehammers used to keep this mechanized division and the tracks on its armor and artillery rolling. The Peter Gabriel song "Sledgehammer" is played over the speakers in the morning after physical training.
Sand Hill is the primary location of the Infantry Training Brigade (198th Infantry Brigade) and the Basic Combat Training Brigade (192nd Infantry brigade). Sand Hill is also the location of the 30th AG Reception Battalion at Fort Benning.
Harmony Church area houses the 2/29 Infantry Regiment Sniper School, the 1/29th Infantry Regiment (training support for Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Strykers), and the Ft. Benning phase of Ranger School. Victory Pond, where the amphibious training for the Bradleys take place, is in Harmony Church. Also in this area, about 1 mile (2 km) from Red Diamond Road, is a Civil War era cemetery in a large meadow. The graveyard is marked in the C C 2 area on the Fort Benning tactical military map as CEMETERY 2.
Fryar Drop Zone, the drop zone that airborne students land on, is located in the Alabama portion of Fort Benning.
Fort Benning is also home to:
Unit, Command
As of November 2008, Major General Michael Barbero is the current post commander. He also serves as the Chief of Infantry, considered the senior Infantryman in the U.S. Army.
Fort Benning was selected by the most recent round of the Base Realignment and Closing Commission (BRAC), to house the new Maneuver Center. This realignment will merge the United States Army Armor School, currently located at Fort Knox, Kentucky with the Infantry Center.
Post Commanders have included General John 'Black Jack' Pershing, General George S. Patton, General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, and General Omar Bradley, for whom the Bradley Fighting Vehicle was named.
The post commanders quarters is known through out the Army as "Riverside" due to its proximity to the Chattahoochee River
A story circulates in the Fort Benning area that Phenix City, Alabama, a town across the Chattahoochee River, once had some Fort Benning troops in jail and wouldn't give them back. The story goes that the (unnamed) Commanding General assembled 8000 troops at the bridge and threatened to send them in to rescue the men if they weren't released. An alternate version told was that the General pulled several tanks up on the banks of the river and threatened to open fire. The version with tanks often is cited as having been General George S. Patton when he was at Fort Benning. However, a military historian has stated that the story was partially true in the sense that a general once threatened to roll tanks into Phenix City but that the general in question was not Patton.
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