Fort Rucker is a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

post located primarily in

Dale County, Alabama Dale County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census the population was 49,326. Its county seat and largest city is Ozark. Its name is in honor of General Samuel Dale. Dale County compr ...

, United States. It was named for a

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

officer, Confederate General Edmund Rucker. The post is the primary flight training installation for U.S. Army Aviators and is home to the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence (USAACE) and the

United States Army Aviation Museum The United States Army Aviation Museum is an aviation museum located on Fort Rucker near Daleville, Alabama. It has the largest collection of helicopters held by a museum in the world.Phillips 1992, p. 37.Purner 2004, p. 204. The museum feature ...

. Small sections of the post also lie in

Coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, and

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

counties. Part of the Dale County section of the base is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...

; its population was 4,636 at the 2010 census. The main post has entrances from three bordering cities, Daleville,

Ozark The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant porti ...

and

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterpris ...

. In the years before the September 11, 2001 attacks, the main post (except airfields and other restricted areas) was an open post with unmanned gates allowing civilians to drive through. Following the attacks, this policy was changed, and the post is now closed to unauthorized traffic and visitors. It is one of the U.S. Army installations named for Confederate soldiers to be recommended for renaming by

The Naming Commission The Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense that Commemorate the Confederate States of America or Any Person Who Served Voluntarily with the Confederate States of America, more commonly referred to as The Naming Commissio ...

. Their recommendation is that the post be renamed Fort Novosel.

(Aug 2022
Recommendation
/ref>

Military facilities

Coordinates: * Fort Rucker: *

Cairns Army Airfield Cairns Army Airfield is a military airport forming a part of Fort Rucker, in Dale County, Alabama, USA, and is owned by the United States Army. The airfield is south of the town of Daleville, which sits between it and the main post. History ...

: *

Hanchey Army Heliport Hanchey Army Heliport is a military heliport serving Fort Rucker in Dale County, Alabama, United States. Owned by the United States Army, it is located south of the city of Ozark.Knox Army Heliport Knox may refer to: Places United States * Fort Knox, a United States Army post in Kentucky ** United States Bullion Depository, a high security storage facility commonly called Fort Knox * Fort Knox (Maine), a fort located on the Penobscot River i ...

: *

Lowe Army Heliport Lowe Army Heliport is a military heliport serving Fort Rucker in Dale County, Alabama, United States. Owned by the United States Army, it is located 8 nautical miles (15 km) southwest of the city of Ozark.Shell Army Heliport Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

: *

Echo Army Heliport In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the list ...

: The U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence is the dominant military facility at Fort Rucker. Training,

doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief syste ...

, and testing are all key parts of the center's mission to develop Army Aviation's capabilities. All Army Aviation training has been undertaken at Fort Rucker since 1973, as well as training of US Air Force and ally helicopter pilots and air crew. The center is home to the

US Army Aviation Technical Test Center The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

(ATTC), which conducts developmental aircraft testing for Army Aviation. The United States Army Operational Test and Evaluation Command's Test and Evaluation Coordination Office and TH-67 primary and instrument training are both located at

. Operational units on the post include the 1st Aviation Brigade and the 110th Aviation Brigade handling Army Aviation training, and the

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

23d Flying Training Squadron for the training of Air Force helicopter pilots and air crew. The 110th Aviation Brigade consists of four battalions using three different sites. 1st Battalion, 11th Aviation Regiment, operates and manages air traffic control services for USAACe/Fort Rucker and the National Airspace System. 1st Battalion, 13th Aviation Regiment trains future Air Traffic Controllers and Aviation Operations Specialists who have recently graduated

United States Army Basic Training United States Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) is the recruit training program of the United States Army, for service in the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Reserve, or the Army National Guard. Some trainees attend basic combat training along with their a ...

, or are transferring from another MOS. 1st Battalion, 14th Aviation Regiment operates from

and conducts combat and night operational training, using the

UH-60 The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift utility military helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted the S-70 design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System ( ...

helicopters. 1st Battalion, 223d Aviation Regiment operates from Cairns Army Airfield and Shell Army Heliport flying the

Eurocopter UH-72 Lakota The Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters) UH-72 Lakota is a twin-engine helicopter with a single, four-bladed main rotor. The UH-72 is a militarized version of the Eurocopter EC145, built by American Eurocopter (now Airbus Helicopters, Inc.), a ...

for introductory helicopter pilot training, and Knox Army Heliport for training pilots who fly the

CH-47 Chinook The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is a tandem rotor helicopter developed by American rotorcraft company Vertol and manufactured by Boeing Vertol. The Chinook is a heavy-lift helicopter that is among the heaviest lifting Western helicopters. Its name, C ...

helicopter. Additionally, due to the large number of

warrant officers Warrant officer (WO) is a rank or category of ranks in the armed forces of many countries. Depending on the country, service, or historical context, warrant officers are sometimes classified as the most junior of the commissioned ranks, the most ...

stationed there, the

Warrant Officer Candidate School The United States Army's Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS), located at Fort Rucker, Alabama, provides training for Soldiers to become a warrant officer in the U.S. Army or U.S. Army National Guard (also conducted via state Regional Traini ...

and Warrant Officer Career College are both located at Fort Rucker.

Aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot a ...

branched warrant officers remain at Fort Rucker to complete flight training and the Aviation

Warrant Officer Basic Course Warrant Officer Basic Course (WOBC) is the technical training program a newly appointed U.S. Army Warrant Officer receives after attending Warrant Officer Candidate School. WOBC is designed to certify warrant officers as technically and tacticall ...

. Upon completion of their training, aviation warrant officers receive the Army Aviator Badge. Support and other facilities at Fort Rucker include the Lyster Army Health Clinic, United States Army Aeromedical Research Lab, United States Army School of Aviation Medicine, United States Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center and Army Aviation Museum.

History

The original name of the post was Ozark Triangular Division Camp, but before the camp was officially opened on 1 May 1942, the War Department named it Camp Rucker. The post was named in honor of Colonel Edmund W. Rucker, a Civil War Confederate officer, who was given the honorary title of "General," and who became an industrial leader in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

after the war. Fort Rucker (situated on of sub-marginal farmland, and formerly a wildlife refuge) was opened on 1 May 1942 as "Camp Rucker". It had quarters for 3,280 officers and 39,461 enlisted personnel. In September 1942, 1,259 additional acres south of Daleville were acquired to construct an airfield to support the training camp. It was known as Ozark Army Airfield until January 1959, when the name was changed to Cairns Army Airfield. The first troops to train at Camp Rucker were those of the 81st Infantry Division; the 81st Division left Rucker for action in the Pacific Theater in March 1943. Three other infantry divisions received training at Camp Rucker during the Second World War—the

35th Military units *35th Fighter Wing, an air combat unit of the United States Air Force *35th Infantry Division (United States), a formation of the National Guard since World War I *35th Infantry Regiment (United States), a regiment created on 1 July 1 ...

, the 98th, and the 66th. The 66th (Panther) Division left for the European Theater in October 1944. Camp Rucker was also used to train dozens of units of less than division size; these included tank, infantry replacement, and Women's Army Corps units. During the latter part of the Second World War, several hundred German and a few Italian prisoners of war were housed in stockades near the railroad east of the warehouse area, on the southern edge of the post. The 91st Infantry Division was sent to Camp Rucker at the war's end, deactivated in December 1945. Camp Rucker was inactive from March 1946 until August 1950. It was reopened during the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. The Minnesota Army National Guard's 47th Infantry Division was mobilized and sent to Camp Rucker in the fall of 1950; the division provided cadre that would conduct basic training of soldiers, who would later on, be sent as replacements to units in Korea. The 47th Infantry Division would remain at Camp Rucker throughout the war. After another short deactivation, it reopened and expanded when it became a helicopter training base. The name was changed to "Fort Rucker" in October 1955. The Hanchey Army Airfield became the home of the Department of Rotary Wing Training of the Army Aviation School on 5 October 1959, marking the first time the department was centralized. Fort Rucker suffered damage from three significant

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

es within two years in 1972 and 1973. The first, rated F2, struck on 13 January 1972. It damaged buildings and helicopters on the post and devastated two nearby trailer parks, killing four people and injuring 88, all army dependents. An F3 tornado struck the post on 29 December 1973, causing minor damage to residences and striking a tank storage area. A second F3 tornado hit a day later, heavily damaging 30 government and residential buildings at Fort Rucker, 5 of which were destroyed.

Renaming

The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act calls for the establishment of an eight-person committee to develop a plan to remove all names, symbols, displays, and monuments that honor or commemorate the Confederacy from all

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

assets, including Fort Rucker. In 2021, The Moore family started a petition to rename the fort in honor of Benjamin O. Davis Jr. He was the first black brigadier general in the USAF.

Geography

Fort Rucker is located at 31°20'37" north, 85°42'29" west (31.343654, -85.707995). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the CDP area of the base has a total area of 10.9 square miles (28.2 km), of which 10.9 square miles (28.2 km) is land and 0.04 square mile (0.1 km) (0.18%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 6,052 people, 1,399 households, and 1,347 families residing on the base. The population density was . There were 1,544 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the base was 68.5% White, 18.1% Black or African American, 0.9% Native American, 2.1% Asian, 0.7% Pacific Islander, 5.3% from other races, and 4.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 11.7% of the population. There were 1,399 households, out of which 79.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 85.4% were married couples living together, 8.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 3.7% were non-families. 3.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 0.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.47 and the average family size was 3.51. On the base the population was spread out, with 35.3% under the age of 18, 15.9% from 18 to 24, 46.2% from 25 to 44, 2.4% from 45 to 64, and 0.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females, there were 131.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 145.1 males. The median income for a household on the base was $34,603, and the median income for a family was $33,664. Males had a median income of $29,321 versus $18,750 for females. The per capita income was $14,495. About 6.1% of families and 7.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.3% of those under the age of 18 and 16.7% of those 65 and older.

Education

Fort Rucker is in the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) as its local school district. Ellis D. Parker Elementary School is the on-post school. Students beyond the elementary level may attend non-DoDEA schools for secondary levels, with an on-post family choosing one of the following three options: Daleville City School System, Enterprise City School System, or Ozark City Schools. Enterprise operates Enterprise High School and Ozark operates

Carroll High School Carroll High School can refer to: In the United States *Carroll High School (Alabama), Ozark, Alabama *Carroll High School (Flora, Indiana), Flora, Indiana *Carroll High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana), Fort Wayne, Indiana *Carroll High School (Iowa) ...

Notable people

Leonard Byrd Leonard Byrd (born March 17, 1975, in Fort Rucker, Alabama) is an American sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres. His personal best time is 44.45 seconds, achieved in May 2002 in Belém, Brazil. This was the fastest time of 2002. He origina ...

, sprinter *

Mayte Garcia Mayte Jannell Garcia (; born November 12, 1973) is an American dancer, actress and singer. She was married to Prince for four years and has worked with various music artists. Early life Garcia was born on November 12, 1973, at Fort Rucker, Al ...

, dancer and singer, ex-wife of

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

Brian Gay Joseph Brian Gay (born December 14, 1971) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. Early years A military brat, Gay was born in Fort Worth, Texas, but was raised primarily at Fort Rucker, Al ...

, professional golfer * James Forbes, basketball player *

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic no ...

, former

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...

; spent time as an enlisted man assigned to Fort Rucker *

Rusty Greer Thurman Clyde "Rusty" Greer III (born January 21, 1969) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder for the Texas Rangers. He most recently worked for Texas Wesleyan University serving as the Assistant Head Coach under former teammate ...

, former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

* Edgar Jones, former

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

player *

Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is a retired American singer, songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are " Me and Bobby McGee", " For the Good Times", " Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and " Help Me Make It Through the ...

, American singer, songwriter and actor. "After joining the Army, Kristofferson received flight instruction at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and became a helicopter pilot. He also successfully completed one of the military's most physically challenging courses: Ranger School." *

Hal Morris William Harold Morris III (born April 9, 1965) is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman who played for several teams from 1988 to 2000, including an eight-year stint with the Cincinnati Reds. From until 2016, he was the di ...

, former Major League Baseball

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

* Blake Percival, whistleblower; spent time as an enlisted man assigned to Fort Rucker * Jeffrey N. Steenson,

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pre ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

; currently serves as the first ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter

References

External links

*
Ft. Rucker authorized military newspaper website

Army Aviation Museum

{{authority control 1942 establishments in Alabama Rucker Rucker Training installations of the United States Army Rucker Buildings and structures in Coffee County, Alabama *Fort Rucker Enterprise–Ozark micropolitan area Buildings and structures in Geneva County, Alabama Buildings and structures in Houston County, Alabama Census-designated places in Alabama Census-designated places in Dale County, Alabama Military installations established in 1942