US Army Infantry Center & Fort Benning & the US Army Infantry School
 

Fort Benning is a United States Army base, 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 Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment; the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), the 14th Combat Support Hospital, and a myriad of additional tenant units.

History

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, and did not receive permanent quarters and status until World War II. 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. 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 Company, later expanded to become the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, was trained at Fort Benning and 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'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 a use for it. The first Tenant Unit to arrive was the Infantry School, which has been there ever since. The Civilian Conservation Corps completed the wooden permanent buildings in the 1930s, and Fort Benning expanded from that point forward. 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" for training paratroopers, familiar Fort Benning landmarks, they were built after soldiers trained in New Jersey on a similar tower designed by the company which built parachute towers for 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. Convicted Vietnam War war criminal William Calley spent 3 1/2 years under house arrest at Fort Benning. In the School of the Americas, located in Fort Benning were trained many international military officers, unfortunately, a few 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 of massacres in San Salvador, like Central American University's massacre in 1989). Graduates of the SOA include also 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.[1] 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 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.

Mission & Priorities

Fort Benning and The Infantry Center provide Trained, Adaptive, and Ready Soldiers and Leaders for an Army at War, while developing Future requirements for the Individual Soldier and the Maneuver Force, and providing a World Class Quality of Life for our Soldiers and Army Families!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 seventeen 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).font face="Times New Roman" size="4">PRIORITIES
The United States Army Infantry Center and Fort Benning will:Fully Support an Army at War Prepare for the Future Enhance the Quality of Life for our Soldiers and Army Families Operate in a Command Climate of Teamwork, Discipline and Standards, Safety and Empowered Leadership
 

Post organization

 

There are four main Cantonment areas on Fort Benning. They are the Main Post area, Kelly Hill, Sand Hill and Harmony Church. Mall houses various garrison and smaller FORSCOM units of Fort Benning such as 988th Military Police Company, the 43rd Engineer Battalion, and the 29th Infantry Regiment, as well as a number of TRADOC-related tenants, e.g., Officer Candidate School, Primary Leadership Development Course, Basic Officer Leader's Course II, and Airborne School. Adjacent to Infantry Hall (the post headquarters building, is the Ranger Memorial, an outdoors monument to Rangers. Kelly 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 Kelly Hill. The 3rd Infantry Division has always been noteworthy for its discipline. Kelly 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). 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

  Ranger Tng Bde
Fort Benning’s Ranger Training Brigade conducts the U.S. Army Ranger School and the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leaders Course (RSLC) for qualified Soldiers, and servicemen, nationally and internationally. The school is eight weeks long and divided into three phases: the Benning (Fort Benning, Ga.), Mountain (Dahlonega, Ga.) and Florida (Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.) phase.

U.S. Army Ranger School FAQs:

Ranger Courses

l. 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:

Additional Information

 
 

Major General Michael Ferriter
Commanding General, Ft. Benning, Georgia

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Command Sergeant Major Earl L. Rice
Post Command Sergeant Major, Ft. Benning, Georgia

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Brigadier General Lloyd “Milo” Miles
Deputy Commanding General, Ft. Benning, Georgia

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Command Sergeant Major Matthew Walker
Infantry School Command Sergeant Major, Ft. Benning, Georgia

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Mr. Donald M. Sando
Director of Capabilities Development and Integration Maneuver Center of Excellence, Fort Benning, Georgia

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Colonel Charles W. Durr Jr.
Chief of Staff, Fort Benning, Georgia

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Colonel Thomas Macdonald
Garrison Commander, Fort Benning, Georgia

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Asas 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.

Fort Benning in popular culture

Movies

TV series

Books

Video Games

Legend

A story circulates in the Fort Benning area that in the past there had been a situation where Phenix City, Alabama, a town across the Chattahoochee River, 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.

General Information

Command Group

Units Present at Fort Benning

UNITS Command

See also

 •  • e

United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC)
Schools Air Assault School • Air Defense Artillery School • Airborne School • Armor School • Aviation School • Basic Training • Chemical School • Combatives School • Command and General Staff College • Defense Language Institute • Engineer School • Field Artillery School • Infantry School • Intelligence Center • Logistics Management College • Officer Candidate School • Prime Power School • Quartermaster School • Ranger School • School of Advanced Military Studies • Sergeants Major Academy • Special Forces Qualification Course • War College • United States Military Academy (West Point)

External links

Coordinates: 32°21′58″N, 84°58′09″W

 

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