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Fort Sill Economic Impact INTRODUCTION TRAINING THE FORCE COMMAND COMMANDING GENERAL SERGEANT MAJOR Major General Leo J. Baxter CSM Anthony J. Williams FORT SILL ECONOMIC IMPACT Impact Summary 1 Fort Sill Chronicles 2 Fort Sill Strategy for the 21 st Century 9 Training the Force 11 Expenditure Summary 14 Contractor Support 15 Personnel Data 18 Civilian Salaries 19 Quality Work and Service 20 Medical/Dental Services and Facilities 21 Educational Enrollment 23 Housing 24 Capital Assets 25 Military Construction 26 Environmental Issues/Utilities 27 Fort Sill - 21 st Century Leader 28 FORT SILL CHRONICLES FORT SILL CHRONICLES At first, the garrison was called "Camp Wichita." Sheri dan later named it in honor of his West Point classmate and friend Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed during the Civil War. The first post commander was Brevet Major General Benjamin Grierson and the first Indian agent was Colonel Albert Gallatin Boone, grandson of Daniel Boone. Several months after the establishment of Fort Sill, President Grant approved a peace policy placing responsibility for the Southwest tribes under Quaker Indian agents. Fort Sill soldiers were restricted from taking punitive action against the India.ns who interpreted this as a sign of weakness. They 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 to find several Kiowa chiefs boasting about a wagon train massacre. When Sherman ordered their arrest during BUFFALO SOLDIERS a meeting on Grierson's porch, two of the Indians attempted to assassinate him. I n memory of the FORT SILL -- WHERE HISTORY LIVES event, the Commanding Generalis quarters was dubbed Sherman House. The site of Fort Sill was staked out on January 8, 1869 by Major General Philip H. Sheridan who led a campaign into Indian Territory to stop hostile tribes from raiding border settlements in Texas and Kansas. In June 1874, the Comanches, Kiowas, and Southern Cheyennes went on the warpath, and the South Plains shook with the hoofbeats of Indian raiders. The Sheridan's massive winter campaign involved six cavalry regiments Red River Campaign, which lasted a year, was mainly a war of attrition accompanied by frontier scouts "Buffalo Bill" Cody, "Wild Bill" Hickok, Ben involving relentless pursuit by converging military columns. Without a chance Clark and Jack Stilwell. Troops camped at the location of the new fort to graze their live stock, and faced with disappearance of the great buffalo included the 7th Cavalry, 19th Kansas Volunteers, and the 10th Cavalry, a herds, the hostile tribes eventually surrendered. Quanah Parker and his distinguished unit of black "Buffalo Soldiers" who constructed many of the Quohada Comanches were the last to abandon the struggle, and their arrival stone buildings still surrounding the Old Post Quadrangle. at Fort Sill in June 1875 marked the end of Indian warfare on the Southern Plains. 2 3 FORT SILL CHRONICLES FORT SILL CHRONICLES In 1894, Geronimo and 341 other The Kiowa, Comanche and Apache lands in Oklahoma opened for settlernent Apache prisoners-of-war were in 1901 and 29,000 homesteaders registered at Fort Sill during July for the brought to Fort Sill where they lived land lottery. On August 6, the town of Lawton sprung up and quickly grew to in villages on the range. Geronimo become the third largest city in Oklahoma. was granted permission to travel for awhile with Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show and he visited President THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FRONTIER Theodore Roosevelt before dying here of pneumonia in 1909. The With the disappearance of the frontier, the mission of Fort Sill gradually rest of the Apaches remained on changed from cavalry to field artillery. The first artillery battery arrived at Fort until 1913 and they were taught by Siill in 1902, and the last cavalry reg,iment departed in May 1907. Lieutenant Hugh L. Scott to build houses, raise crops and herd cattle. As home of the Field Artillery, Fort Sill is not only at the forefront of tremendous technological advances, but it is also steeped in natural, 'living history. And, as the only active Army installation of all the forts. on the ~ou~h Plains built during the Indian wars, Fort Sill is also a National Hlstonc Landmark. MEDICINE BLUFFS - A site listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this unique Ilandmark at the eastern end of the Wichita Mountains - noted, described and explored by early expeditions of white men - has been held in deep reverence by Indian tribes in this area from time immemorial. Scott also commanded Troop L of the 7th Cavalry, a unit comprised entirely of Indians and considered one of the best in the West. Indian scout I-See-O Four contiguous prophyry bluffs form a picturesque crescent a mile in length and other members of the troop are credited with helping tribes on the South on the south side of Medicine Bluff Creek, a tributary of Cache Creek and Red River. It is evidently the result of an ancient cataclysm in which half of a rock Plains avoid the bloody Ghost Dance uprising of the 1890s in which many had dome was raised along a crack or fault. When Fort Sill was established in died on the North Plains. 1869, the Indians named it the IISoldier House at Medicine Bluffs." 4 5 FORT SILL CHRONICLES FORT SILL CHRONICLES PICKET HOUSE - The oldest structure on Fort Sill, this is one of several School was also held in this building for the children on the post. The teachers vertical log buildings, known as picket houses, constructed at Fort Sill in the were usually sergeants paid at the rate of fifty cents per day for their efforts. early months of 1869. Their function was to replace the even more The children of the officers, as well as the Indian women who sometimes rudimentary houses of brush and saplings that were or,iginally built by the 19th worked in the family quarters, all attended school in the little chapel. Parties Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. When the most permanent stone structures were were frequently held in the chapel. completed in 1870-1871, the picket buildings were turned over to the laundresses and later to married noncommissioned officers. This later use continued well into the 20th Century. Cottonwood and oak logs were Also, the services were scarcely commonly erected in a vertical fashion with the base in a prepared ditch which over sometimes when the benches was then backfilled, providing a dirt floor. would be pushed aside and the dances would begin. In its setting of The logs may also have been set on quiet beauty, this little chapel a stone foundation, in which case a remains as a hallowed symbol of wooden floor was installed. The first the place that religion has held in post commander, Colonel Benjamin the lives of the military personnel of Grierson, lived in a picket house this nation. located northwest of the Old Post Quadrangle (behind Butner House). Today, only a couple of examples of picket log architecture have FIIRST SCHOOL OF FIRE - For 500 survived the ravages of time to years, problems of field artillery remind us of Fort Sill's primitive seemed insurmountable. beginnings. Artillerymen dreamed of artillery that could move as fast as the supported OLD POST CHAPEL - The Old Post Chapel was constructed in 11875 by army; shoot safely, rapidly and elements of the 11 th Infantry and 4th Cavalry under the command of General accurately; and communicate Ronald S. McKenzie. The sum of $2,500 was appropriated for the purchase beyond the range of human senses. of materials for the erection of a chapel and school house. Built of native limestone and local timber, this little outpost of Christianity was the filrst structure of the post visible to weary travelers coming in by stagecoach from Near the end of the 19th century, science and industry made these dreams the distant settlements in the eastern states. reality with smokeless powder, which was safer and more powerful than black powder; rifled steel cannons, which were stronger, lighter and more accurate; breech loaders, which were faster and safer; recoil systems, which allowed 7 6 FORT SILL CHRONICLES FORT SILL STRATEGY the gun to absorb the shock of firing without rolling back out of position; optical FOR THE 21 ST CENTURY sighting instruments, which greatly multiplied the distance gunners could see; motorized transport, which was faster and more powerful than animals; and wire and radio communications systems, which greatly multiplied the range of MISSION voice. Artillery was modernized practically overnight. The need to teach u.s. artillerymen to shoot, move and communicate with the new equipment was As America's Center for Fires and Home of the Field Artillery, Fort Sill imperative. On June 18, 1911, the School of Fire was started at Fort Sill and develops, trains, equips, mobilizes, and rapidly deploys the Force as an has been turning out the world's finest field artillerymen since. Solldiers trained integral part of our Nation's power projection strategy. here have influenced world history. Today, Fort Sill serves as a National Historic Landmark and home of the field artillery for the free world. Fort Sill is on "The Cutting Edge", with a shared vision of where we need to be tomorrow! While fulfilling its mission, Fort Si/,l continuously empowers our workforce to improve the quality of life for the Lawton/Fort Sill community. The annexation of Fort Sill to Lawton in 1998 is a major step in working together. In everything we do, we maintain an uncompromising commitment to the soldiers, Marines, civilians, retirees, and families who are the very soul and substance of our installation.
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