Coordinates: 34°42′15″N 98°30′30″W / 34.70417°N 98.50833°W / 34.70417; -98.50833

Fort Sill
Comanche County, near Lawton, Oklahoma
Shoulder sleeve insignia of units stationed at Fort Sill
Type	Military post
Built	1869
In use	1869 – present
Controlled by	United States
Garrison	United States Army Field Artillery School United States Army Air Defense Artillery School 75th Fires Brigade 214th Fires Brigade 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade
Commanders	MG David Halverson

Fort Sill
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Old infantry barracks at Fort Sill.
Location:	Comanche County, outside Lawton, Oklahoma
Architect:	US Army
Governing body:	Department of the Army
NRHP Reference#:	66000629
Designated NHL:	19 December 1960[1]

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Fort Sill is a United States Army post in Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.

Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars.^[2] It is designated as a National Historic Landmark^[1] and serves as home of the United States Army Field Artillery School as well as the Marine Corps' site for Field Artillery MOS school, United States Army Air Defense Artillery School, the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade, the 75th Fires Brigade and the 214th Fires Brigade. Fort Sill is also one of the four locations for Army Basic Combat Training.

As of December 2009, Major General David D. Halverson is the current commanding general of the Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill.^[3]

History[link]

The site of Fort Sill was staked out on 8 January 1869, by Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, who led a campaign into Indian Territory to stop hostile tribes from raiding border settlements in Texas and Kansas.

Sheridan's massive winter campaign involved six cavalry regiments accompanied by frontier scouts such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, Ben Clark and Jack Stilwell. Troops camped at the location of the new fort included the 7th Cavalry, the 19th Kansas Volunteers and the 10th Cavalry, a distinguished group of black "buffalo soldiers" who constructed many of the stone buildings still surrounding the old post quadrangle.

At first, the garrison was called "Camp Wichita" and was referred to by the Indians as "the Soldier House at Medicine Bluffs." Sheridan later named it in honor of his West Point classmate and friend, Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed during the American Civil War. The first post commander was Brevet Maj. Gen. Benjamin Grierson and the first Indian agent was Colonel Albert Gallatin Boone, grandson of Daniel Boone.

Peace policy[link]

Several months after the establishment of Fort Sill, President Ulysses Grant approved a peace policy placing responsibility for the Southwest tribes under Quaker Indian agents; the first Quaker agent assigned to the Kiowa and Comanche agency was Lawrie Tatum. Fort Sill soldiers were restricted from taking punitive action against the Indians, who interpreted this as a sign of weakness.^{[citation needed]}The Indians resumed raiding the Texas frontier and used Fort Sill as a sanctuary.

In 1871, General of the Army William Tecumseh Sherman arrived at Fort Sill from Fort Richardson, Texas, while on a tour of Army posts throughout the country. Sherman was at Fort Richardson when they became aware of the Warren Wagon Train Raid, in which seven muleskinners were killed by Indians when their wagon train was ambushed. Soon after Sherman arrived at Fort Sill, the Indian Agent brought several Kiowa chiefs to tell their story about attacking the wagon train. When Sherman ordered their arrest during a meeting on Grierson's porch, two of the Indians attempted to assassinate him. In memory of the event, the Commanding General's quarters were dubbed Sherman House.

The Army arrested three chiefs during the porch skirmish: Satank, Satanta and Addo-etta (Big Tree). Sherman ordered them to Texas for a civil trial for the murders. When the three were put into a wagon and taken under cavalry escort to Fort Richardson, Satank began his death song. A mile down the trail, he grabbed the carbine of one of the troopers in the wagon. Before he could cock and fire it, he was hit by several shots fired by the escort. Satank was left against a tree and the column continued on its mission. A marker on Berry Road near the curve marks the spot where Satank, an honored warrior, fell. His grave is in Chiefs Knoll in the post cemetery.

Satanta were tried by Texas courts on July 5 and 6, found guilty and sentenced to hang. This was the first time Indians had been tried in civil courts. Supporters of the Quaker peace policy convinced Governor Edmund J. Davis to commute the Indians' sentences to life imprisonment. Then in October 1873 they were paroled^[4].

Red River War[link]

In June 1874, the Comanches, Kiowas and Southern Cheyennes went to war and the South Plains shook with the hoofbeats of Indian raiders. The resulting Red River War, which lasted a year, was a war of attrition involving relentless pursuit by converging military columns.

Without a chance to graze their livestock and faced with a disappearance of the great buffalo herds, the tribes eventually surrendered. Quanah Parker and his Kwahadi Comanches were the last to abandon the struggle and their arrival at Fort Sill in June, 1875, marked the end of Indian warfare on the south Plains.

In 1877, the first African-American to graduate from West Point, Henry O. Flipper, was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, the famous Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Sill. In addition to his leadership duties in the cavalry, he directed his men to dig a ditch to drain a swamp ... this is still called Flipper's Ditch and a landmark is on Upton Road by the Fort Sill Golf Course.

Unlike other U.S. territories, Indian Territory had no organized government so Army posts like Fort Reno, Fort Supply and Fort Sill found themselves the most significant federal and legal presence in a wide territory. They provided protection to Indians and civilians alike, sometimes dealt as mediators between the Indians and the Indian agents, and protected the various Indian tribes against intrusion by the infamous Sooners.

At one point in the 1880s, the post was nearly deserted when gold was rumored to have been found in the nearby Wichita Mountains and officers and soldiers alike rushed to stake claims.

Geronimo[link]

In 1894, Geronimo and 341 other Chiricahua Apache prisoners of war were brought to Fort Sill, where they lived in villages scattered around the post. After a couple of years, Geronimo was granted permission to travel with Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show and he joined the Indian contingent at several annual World Expositions and Indian Expositions in the 1890s and early 1900s. Geronimo and other Indians leaders rode in the inaugural parade of President Theodore Roosevelt and met the president himself during that trip. Geronimo and the other Apache prisoners had free range of Fort Sill. He was a member of Fort Sill's Native Scouts, but he did make at least one documented attempt to escape the fort, though not in the dramatic fashion of jumping off the steep Medicine Bluffs on his horse in a hail of bullets as popularized in the 1939 movie, Geronimo (which was the inspiration for parachutists of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment to yell his name when they jumped out of aircraft.^{[citation needed]} Once, after visiting the off-post home of chief Quanah Parker, Geronimo decided to escape to his homeland in Arizona late one night rather than return to Fort Sill. He was captured the next day. He died of pneumonia in 1909 and is buried at Fort Sill.^[5]

The rest of the Apaches remained on Fort Sill until 1913. The Chiricahua had been promised the lands surrounding the fort by the US government; however local non-Indians resisted their settlement. In 1914 two-thirds of the tribe moved onto the Mescalero Apache Reservation and the remaining third settled on allotments around Fletcher and Apache, Oklahoma.^[6] They became what is known today as the Fort Sill Apache Tribe.

Lt. Hugh L. Scott commanded Troop L of the 7th Cavalry, a unit consisting entirely of Indians and considered one of the best in the west. Indian scout I-See-O and other members of the troop are credited with helping tribes on the South Plains avert the Bloody Ghost Dance uprising of the 1890s in which many Indians were brutally murdered by the US Army on the North Plains.

The frontier disappears[link]

Next door to the Artillery Museum is a new Artillery Park with artillery pieces from throughout the world.

The Last Indian lands in Oklahoma opened for settlement in 1901 and 29,000 homesteaders registered at Fort Sill during July for the land lottery. On 6 August the town of Lawton sprang up and quickly grew to become the third largest city in Oklahoma.

With the disappearance of the frontier, the mission of Fort Sill gradually changed from cavalry to field artillery. The first artillery battery arrived at Fort Sill in 1902 and the last cavalry regiment departed in May 1907. In 1917 the Henry Post Army Airfield was constructed, for artillery observation and spotting.

The School of Fire for the Field Artillery was founded at Fort Sill in 1911 and continues to operate today as the world renowned U.S. Army Field Artillery School. At various times Fort Sill has also served as home to the Infantry School of Musketry, the School for Aerial Observers, the Artillery Officers Candidate School (Robinson Barracks), the Air Service Flying School, and the Army Aviation School.

Henry Post Army Airfield[link]

Fort Sill also contains the birthplace of military combat aviation, located at the parade field at the Old Post Quadrangle at Fort Sill.

Here, the 1st Aero Squadron, under Captain Benjamin D. Foulois, uncrated their new, unassembled airplanes and put them together in 1915. They then pushed their Curtiss JN-2 planes down hill to the Polo field. On August 10, they made their first flights.

Unfortunately, the first airplane accident came just two days later, on August 12, 1915. Lt. Rondondo B. Sutton, the pilot, was hospitalized, but his passenger, Captain George H. Knox, the paymaster of Fort Sill, was killed. According to the Lawton Constitution newspaper article, there was a large crowd of civilians at the field to see the aircraft in flight – and were, consequently, there to see the results of the accident. The large crowd of men, women and children were horrified, according to the paper. Soon after, on September 5, another plane was lost in a second crash, after which Foulois grounded the remaining planes out of concern for safety.

Undaunted, the squadron began trials with the field artillery to see if they could perform reconnaissance of field positions, but the results were disappointing, mostly due to inadequate equipment. New equipment was ordered and by October 14, operations with the field artillery were resumed. On October 22, Lt. T.D. Milling made the first two flights to test aerial photography using a Brock camera. On November 6, the squadron successfully made a photo mosaic of 42 plates.

The squadron left Fort Sill on November 19 on a cross-country trip from which they would not return. They flew six planes to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, a total of 439 miles in a historic cross-country distance flight. The aviators were supported by a trail of supply-laden heavy trucks and their mechanics on motorcycles. The flight arrived on November 26, without any major incidents delaying them.

The squadron was kept in Texas because of tension along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa felt betrayed that the U.S. government recognized Venustiano Carranza's Mexican government. Villa began to attack Americans in northern Mexico. On March 9, 1916, Villa's troops attacked Columbus, N.M. and a detachment of the 13th Cavalry. The town was burned and Americans suffered eighteen killed and eight wounded Soldiers and civilians. President Woodrow Wilson ordered Gen. John J. Pershing to lead 4,800 men into Mexico to capture Villa.

The 1st Aero Squadron was part of that army. They transferred to Casas Grandes in Mexico and began duties flying reconnaissance, delivering mail and dispatches and transporting senior officers. These simple tasks were more than their airplanes (designed for training, not combat) could handle. They didn't have enough power to fly over the mountains of northern Mexico. One rain storm dumped nearly a foot of water into the cockpit of Foulois' craft and flooded out his engine. He successfully managed to land his plane without power. Additionally, every landing in Mexico was carried out in hostile territory. Many pilots found themselves cut off from friendly lines with little more than their wits to rescue them from hostile Mexicans and Mexican officials.

The squadron flew 540 missions in Mexico - averaging 36 miles per mission. After six weeks, they were done. Their airplanes were worn out, and two had crashed. Four others needed parts and were grounded. For weeks afterward, crew members and pilots had blisters from carving new propellers out of logs. On April 20, 1916, the Army ordered the squadron back to Columbus, N.M. Their only real military success was finding a lost and thirsty cavalry column.

The 1st Aero Squadron received new airplanes, but these were hurriedly packed by the factory, were all missing parts and required significant modifications. The squadron did not again take to the field until they deployed to France as part of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. Today, the 3rd Reconnaissance Squadron of the U.S. Air Forces traces their unit heritage to the 1st Aero Squadron.

Henry Post Army Airfield[link]

In Aug. 1917, Capt. H.R. Eyrich surveyed a new airfield location at Fort Sill and established Henry Post Army Airfield (named after 2nd Lt. Henry Post who was killed in a plane crash in San Diego in 1914). The field occupies a small plateau about a mile south of the main post cantonment area. Construction immediately began on wooden hangars, offices and officer housing. As the U.S. entered World War I, the airfield was used to train aerial observers for the field artillery.

On Aug. 29, the 3rd Aero Squadron left Fort Sam Houston for Fort Sill with 12 Curtiss R4 airplanes under the command of Capt. Weir. It was redesignated as Squadron A, Post Field, Okla. on July 22, 1918. It was demobilized, due to the end of World War I, on Jan. 2, 1919. Today, the 3rd Flying Training Squadron, which traces its lineage to the 3rd Aero Squadron, trains pilots at Vance Air Force Base, Enid, Okla.

The 4th Aero Squadron was also sent to Post Airfield that summer. The 4th operated as an observation school for the field artillery until it was deactivated on Jan. 2, 1919. Today, the 394th Combat Training Squadron at Whiteman AFB, Mo., traces its lineage to the 4th Aero Squadron.

A variety of units were created, deactivated, assigned and reassigned as the Army's aviation assets grew. In 1922, Fort Sill was considered the busiest airport in the U.S.

Aviation at Fort Sill added lighter-than-air ships to its inventory when Company A, 1st Balloon Squadron, arrived on Sept. 5, 1917 from the Balloon School in Omaha, Neb. The company split to form the 25th and 26th Balloon Companies on Feb. 16 and Apr. 2, 1918. In order to meet the demand for trained aerial observers for field artillery, a Balloon Corps Training School was set up at Post Field in 1918. During World War I, the school trained 751 officers and created 89 companies, of which 33 were deployed to Europe.

The school used balloons and fixed wing aircraft for aerial observation. Both sausage-shaped "captured" balloons and spherical-shaped "free" balloons were used in the 1920s and 30s. The balloonists were trained on free flight on the "free" balloons, but they had to stay within 50 miles of post and 8,000 feet.

The tethered or "captured" balloons were for observation only - connected to winch trucks on the ground by cable and transported at speeds as high as 60 miles an hour. They were inflated with hydrogen and operated at a maximum height of 4,300 feet. They observed and relayed fire-corrective information to special operation trucks.

At this time, balloon companies were a corps-level asset. The Army of World War I included an aero squadron in every corps. Other auxiliary units for a corps were an anti-aircraft machine-gun and anti- aircraft artillery battalion, a remount depot, a bakery company, a troop transport train, a telegraph battalion, a field signal battalion, a photo section and a sales commissary unit.

Self-propelled balloons were developed at Post Field in 1937. These balloons were designed to be powered to an observation point, their motors removed and observation baskets were attached. The famous balloon hangar, moved from Moffitt Field to Fort Sill in 1934, was intended to house dirigibles. The unique "cross" on the side of the building has no religious significance - it is part of an air circulation system designed to dry balloon fabric and parachutes.

Balloons were assigned to the field until 1941. The most famous balloon pilot trained at Fort Sill was Gen. Barksdale Hamlett, Jr. This four star general was the commandant of the American sector of Berlin during the 1958 Berlin Crisis, became the vice chief of staff of the Army, played a key role in the Cuban Missile Crisis and in the escalation of the Vietnam War.

One of the U.S. Air Force's most advanced technical units, the 1st Airborne Command and Control Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., traces its lineage through the 1st Balloon Company.

An enduring legacy - Fort Sill aviation[link]

The 44th Aero Squadron was assigned to support the Field Artillery School at Post Field in Aug. 1922. It was reassigned July 31, 1927 to the Air Corps Training Center. The unit today is not active. It was replaced by the 88th Observation Squadron, which moved from Brooks Field, Texas, to Fort Sill in Sept. 1928. The 88th left Post Field in 1931 and today is known as the 436th Training Squadron out of Dyess AFB, Texas.

In the 1930s the WPA and Army built several new permanent structures to replace the World War I-era tar paper buildings. Building 4908, the aircraft maintenance hangar, built in 1932 is the oldest building at the airfield.

World War II to present[link]

By 1940, the Field Artillery School had permission to train its own fixed wing pilots as field artillery spotters. The Army Air Corps turned Post Field over to the FA School and the facility began to swarm with Grasshoppers and Bird Dogs. (single-engine small airplanes) - part of the Department of Air Training.

What was originally a five-week course was expanded, and special primary flight schools for prospective field artillery pilots were set up at Pittsburg, Kansas, and Denton, Texas. After attending one of these primary schools, pilots went to Post Field for their advanced training, which included short field procedures and observer training.

By the end of the war, 262 pilots and 2,262 mechanics were trained at Post Field.

Advancements in air defense artillery and radar systems during the Cold War made the slow-moving Grasshoppers and Bird Dogs easy targets - especially in forward areas. Because of this vulnerability, they were phased out during the Vietnam War. During that conflict, 469 O-1 Bird Dogs were lost to all causes. 284 of these were lost by the Army.

The Army Ground Forces Air Training School (later designated the Army Aviation School) was established at Post Field on Dec. 7, 1945. In Oct. 1948, pilot training for helicopters H25 and H13 began. The first warrant officer class began in 1951.

The school was transferred to Camp Rucker, Ala. in 1954, but Post Field still had an assortment of helicopter units that called it home.

In 1963 the 1st Aerial Artillery Group (Provisional) was organized to test equipping CH-34 helicopters with rocket pods attached to each side. The rockets converted a transport aircraft, an easy target in most combat situations, into a sophisticated flying weapon capable of direct or indirect fires. It was the ancestor to the Cheyenne and Long Bow attack helicopters of today.

The 295th Aviation Company. (Heavy Helicopter) was established at Fort Sill in the 60s. The unit was assigned ten Skycrane CH-54A helicopters. The unit also had a UH-1H administrative aircraft and later an OH-58 joined the unit. It was the mother company to the 355th Aviation Company (that deployed to Vietnam in 1968-69) and the 273rd Aviation Company (that deployed to Vietnam 1967-1968.) In Dec. 1969, the unit was deployed to Finthen Army Airfield near Mainz, Germany. Today, the company is designated F Company, 159th Aviation Regiment (Heavy Lift Helicopter Company) and is equipped with CH-47 Chinooks.

Post Field is the oldest continually operating airfield in the U.S. Army.

Historic recognition[link]

Fort Sill was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960.^[1]

Cemeteries[link]

There are various cemeteries on Fort Sill, where many Indians are buried. Geronimo, Kiowa Chief Satanta, and Comanche Chief Quanah Parker^[7] are among the famous Native American leaders buried there.

Activities today[link]

A detachment of the United States Marine Corps, consisting of a firing battery and commanded by a colonel, is stationed at Fort Sill. Referred to as the MARDET, the detachment works with the Field Artillery School to train Marine artillerymen. Marines also serve as gunnery and fire support instructors at the Field Artillery Officer Basic Course, and as small group leaders at the Field Artillery Captains' Career Course. All Marine artillery officers attend the Field Artillery School and are trained alongside their Army Counterparts.

The 77th Army Band (Special designation:"The Pride of Fort Sill"^[8]) is part of the Fires Center of Excellence. It was originally organized on 1 March 1907 at Fort Du Pont, Delaware as the 13th Band, Coast Artillery.

Another special detachment is the Field Artillery Half Section, an eight-man group representative of the "flying artillery" which was drawn by a team of horses (the Half Section has eight horses – all named after former commanding generals of Fort Sill) around the turn of the 20th century. The Half Section was established in 1969 to celebrate Fort Sill's Centennial. The Soldiers are volunteers for the show group, while the horses, their equipment and transportation are provided through charitable donations. The popular Half Section has appeared in regional parades, local festivities, change of command ceremonies and a presidential inauguration parade.

Tenant units[link]

• 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade
  • 3rd Battalion, 2nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment (United States)
  • 4th Battalion, 3rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment (United States)
• 75th Fires Brigade
  • 3rd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)
  • 2nd Battalion, 18th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)
  • 1st Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)
  • 100th Brigade Support Battalion
• 214th Fires Brigade
  • 2nd Battalion, 4th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)
  • 2nd Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)
  • 1st Battalion, 14th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)
  • 168th Brigade Support Battalion
  • Hotel Battery, 26th Field Artillery Regiment (United States)(Target Acquisition)
  • 529th Signal Company
• 25px United States Army Field Artillery School
• United States Army Air Defense Artillery School

Geography[link]

Climate[link]

See also[link]

• Sanapia

References[link]

External links[link]

	United States Army portal
	Oklahoma portal

• Fort Sill official web site
• Field Artillery museum
• Global Security's Fort Sill page
• Fort Sill Relocation Information and Fort Sill Q&A
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Fort Sill

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