General
Henry L. Benning. It is now named after
US Army Corporal
Fred G. Benning.
Establishment Camp Benning was established on 19 October 1918, initially providing
basic training for
World War I units, post-war.
Dwight D. Eisenhower served at Benning from 24 December 1918 until 15 March 1919, with about 250 of his
Camp Colt, Pennsylvania, tankers who had been transferred to Benning after the armistice. In December 1918, a portion of the Camp Polk tank school near Raleigh, North Carolina was transferred to Camp Benning "to work in conjunction with the Infantry school". In February 1920, Congress voted to declare Camp Benning a permanent military post and appropriated more than $1 million of additional building funds for the Infantry School of Arms, which later became the Infantry School. By the fall of 1920, more than 350 officers, 7,000 troops and 650 student officers lived at Camp Benning. Benning fought against U.S. Army troops in the
Civil War as commander of
Confederate States Army forces. In 1924, Brig. Gen.
Briant H. Wells became the fourth commandant of the Infantry School and established the Wells Plan for permanent construction on the installation, emphasizing the importance of the outdoor environment and recreation opportunities for military personnel. During Wells' tenure, the post developed recreational facilities such as Doughboy Stadium, Gowdy Field, the post theater and Russ swimming pool. Doughboy Stadium was erected as a memorial by soldiers to their fallen comrades of World War I. One of the Doughboys' original coaches was a young captain named Dwight D. Eisenhower. Lt. Col.
George C. Marshall was appointed assistant commandant of the post in 1927 and initiated major changes. Marshall, who later became the
Army Chief of Staff during World War II, was appalled by the high casualties World War I caused, he thought, by insufficient training. He was determined to prevent a lack of preparation from costing more lives in future conflicts. He and his subordinates revamped the education system at Fort Benning. The changes he fostered are still known as the Benning Revolution. Later in his life, Marshall went on to author the
Marshall Plan for reviving postwar Europe and was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. The battalion, later expanded to become the
555th Parachute Infantry Battalion and nicknamed the Triple Nickels, was trained at Fort Benning but did not deploy overseas and never saw combat during World War II. During this period, the specialized duties of the Triple Nickels were primarily in a firefighting role, with over one thousand parachute jumps as
smoke jumpers. The 555th was deployed to the
Pacific Northwest of the United States in response to the concern that forest fires were being set by the Japanese military using long-range
incendiary balloons. The
82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion was activated 15 July 1940, and trained at the Fort.
Racial killings On 28 March 1941, the body of Private
Felix "Poss" Hall was found hanged in a shallow ravine near what is now Logan Avenue. Born on 1 January 1922, in
Millbrook, Alabama, he enlisted in the Army in August 1940. He was assigned to serve in the
24th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, an all-Black segregated unit formed after the
Civil War. Two cousins and his best friend from Millbrook were also stationed at Fort Benning and bunked near him. Hall was known for being friendly and popular, and worked at the base sawmill. On 12 February he told his friends that he was headed to the post exchange for Black servicemen after his work shift. He was last seen alive around 4:00 p.m. in Block W, an all-white neighborhood between the mill and post exchange. He did not appear at bugle call the next morning, and was declared a deserter, nearly a month after his disappearance. His body was found by soldiers on 28 March 1941, hanging against the edge of a ravine in a wooded area. His death was officially declared a homicide, although military officials speculated he had committed suicide. A Fort Benning physician examined his body on 8 April and ruled it a homicide. A memorial event was also held during the unveiling of his marker. His name is inscribed at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. On 23 March 1941, Private Albert King, a Black serviceman, was killed by Sergeant Robert Lummus, who was White, following an altercation on a bus. After a night of drinking, King, Pfc. Lawrence Hoover, and their girlfriends, were riding on a bus around 3:30 a.m., back to their barracks. King was shouting and "cussing", according to the driver and other Black passengers. The driver stopped the bus near the Fort's gates and Sergeant Lummus, a
Military Police motorcycle officer, boarded the bus. When Lummus tried to take King and Hoover off the bus, King ran out the front door, and Lummus hit Hoover with a
blackjack. After taking Hoover into custody, Lummus later found a Black soldier walking back toward the main post. Lummus approached King and threatened to arrest him. When King claimed that Lummus could not do so, Lummus shot King five times, killing him. During the trial, later that day, it was claimed that King had drawn a pocket knife when approached by Lummus, though Hoover denied that King had a pocket knife with him. Lummus was found not guilty of murder and transferred the next day to
Fort Knox. 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. The
Airborne School on Main Post has three 249-foot (76 m) drop towers called "Free 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 14 March 1954. During the spring of 1962, General
Herbert B. Powell, Commanding General,
U.S. Continental Army Command, directed that all instruction at the Infantry School after 1 July reflect
Reorganization Objective Army Division structures. Therefore, the Infantry School asked for permission to reorganize the
1st Infantry Brigade under a ROAD structure. Instead, the Army Staff decided to inactivate the
Pentomic-structured brigade and replace it with a new ROAD unit, the 197th Infantry Brigade, which resolved a unit designation issue. With the designation 1st Infantry Brigade slated to return to the
1st Infantry Division when it converted to ROAD, the existing unit at Fort Benning required a new title. The staff selected an infantry brigade number that had been associated with an Organized Reserve division that was no longer in the force. For the new ROAD brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia, the adjutant general on 1 August 1962, restored elements of the 99th Reconnaissance Troop, which thirty years earlier had been organized by consolidating infantry brigade headquarters and headquarters companies of the 99th Infantry Division, as Headquarters and Headquarters Companies, 197th and 198th Infantry Brigades.
George W. Casey Jr. at Fort Benning in 2009 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. Fort Benning also had an urban village,
McKenna Military Operations in Urban Terrain, built by Army engineers for urban training of soldiers. It was used for live, virtual and constructive experimentation on soldier systems, weapons, and equipment. The site was approximately 200 square meters, and included 15 buildings resembling a European village. There was a church, small houses, domestic residences and office-style buildings. In 1984, following the signing of the
Panama Canal Treaty, the
School of the Americas relocated from
Fort Gulick (
Panama) to Fort Benning. After criticism concerning human rights violations committed by a number of graduates in Latin America, the school was renamed
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
2024 missing weapons incident 31
M17 pistols,
ENVGs and a
thermal optic were reported stolen from Fort Moore's central armory. The Army's
Criminal Investigation Division (CID) has offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the stolen items.
Commanding generals • Colonel Henry E. Eames Oct 1918 – Apr 1919 • Major General
Charles S. Farnsworth Apr 1919 – Jul 1920 • Major General Walter H. Gordon Sep 1920 – Nov 1923 • Brigadier General
Briant H. Wells Nov 1923 – Mar 1926 • Brigadier General
Edgar T. Collins Mar 1926 – May 1929 • Major General
Campbell King May 1929 – May 1933 • Brigadier General George H. Estes Sep 1933 – Sep 1936 • Brigadier General Asa L. Singleton Oct 1936 – Aug 1940 • Brigadier General
Courtney H. Hodges Oct 1940 – Mar 1941 • Brigadier General
Omar N. Bradley Mar 1941 – Feb 1942 • Major General Leven C. Allen Feb 1942 – Sep 1943 • Major General
Charles Hartwell Bonesteel Jr. Sep 1943 – Jun 1944 • Major General Fred L. Walker Jul 1944 – Jul 1945 • Major General
John W. O'Daniel Jul 1945 – June 1948 • Major General
Withers A. Burress Jul 1948 – Jan 1951 • Major General John H. Church Mar 1951 – May 1952 • Major General
Robert Nicholas Young Jun 1952 – Jan 1953 • Major General
Guy S. Meloy Jr. Jan 1953 – June 1954 • Major General Joseph H. Harper Jun 1954 – May 1956 • Major General George E. Lynch May 1956 – Aug 1956 • Major General
Herbert B. Powell Aug 1956 – Apr 1958 • Major General Paul L. Freeman May 1958 – Apr 1960 • Major General Hugh P. Harris Apr 1960 – Jul 1961 • Major General Ben Harrell Aug 1961 – Feb 1963 • Major General
Charles W. G. Rich Feb 1963 – Aug 1964 • Major General
John A. Heintges Aug 1964 – Jul 1965 • Major General
Robert H. York Jul 1965 – Jul 1967 • Major General
John M. Wright Jul 1967 – May 1969 • Major General
George I. Forsythe May 1969 – Aug 1969 • Major General
Orwin C. Talbott Sep 1969 – Feb 1973 • Major General
Thomas M. Tarpley Feb 1973 – Aug 1975 • Major General Willard Latham Aug 1975 – Jul 1977 • Major General William J. Livsey Jul 1977 – Apr 1979 • Major General
David E. Grange Jr. Jun 1979 – Aug 1981 • Major General RL "Sam" Wetzel Aug 1981 – Jul 1983 • Major General James J. Lindsay Jul 1983 – Mar 1984 • Major General
John W. Foss Mar 1984 – Jan 1986 • Major General Edwin H. Burba Jr. Jan 1986 – Jun 1987 • Major General Kenneth C. Leuer Jun 1987 – Sep 1988 • Major General Michael F. Spigelmire Sep 1988 – Jun 1990 • Major General Carmen J. Cavezza Jun 1990 – Oct 1991 • Major General Jerry A. White Oct 1991 – Sept 1994 • Major General John W. Hendrik Sep 1994 – Jul 1996 • Major General Carl F. Ernst Jul 1996 – Sep 1999 • Major General John M. Le Moyne Sep 1999 – Oct 2001 • Major General Paul D. Eaton Oct 2001 – Jun 2003 • Major General
Benjamin C. Freakley Jul 2003 – Aug 2005 • Major General
Walter Wojdakowski Aug 2005 – Nov 2008 • Major General
Michael D. Barbero Nov 2008 – Jun 2009 • Major General
Michael Ferriter Jun 2009 – Nov 2010 • Major General Robert B. Brown Nov 2010 – Jun 2012 • Major General
H.R. McMaster Jun 2012 – July 2014 • Major General
Austin S. Miller July 2014 – March 2016 • Major General
Eric J. Wesley March 2016 - March 2018 • Major General
Gary M. Brito March 2018 – July 2020 • Major General
Patrick J. Donahoe July 2020 - July 2022 • Major General
Curtis A. Buzzard July 2022 - July 2024 • Major General
Colin P. Tuley July 2024 – present ==Post information==