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- Fort Riley, Kansas
Fort Riley, Kansas
Installation Listings
Geographical Address
Contact Info
Located in both Geary and Riley counties, Fort Riley is located in northeastern Kansas, one hour west of Topeka, the state capitol. The two primary local towns are Junction City (mostly a military town) and Manhattan (Home to Kansas State University). There are a number of other small towns and a great deal of rural and farmland in the area. Kansas City is 2 ½ hours away and is home to the Kansas City Chiefs. Those who live in the local communities are friendly and helpful. The area is “laid back” with a suburban lifestyle and pace making it great for raising children. Fort Riley is home to 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized); 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized); Division Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion; 1st Combat Aviation Brigade; 1st Infantry Division Divarty; and 1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade.
Mission
Fort Riley Overview
The 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley build and maintain combat-ready forces and deploy these forces in an expeditionary manner to conduct Decisive Action to fight and win in complex environments as members of a Joint, Inter-organizational, and Multinational (JIM) team.
Fort Riley, is an Installation of Excellence, working in close partnership with local, regional, and state communities to provide trained and ready forces to meet Joint Force requirements across the full spectrum of current and future operations. Fort Riley manages and maintains unit readiness as directed by the Army Campaign Plan, executes unit re-stationing as directed by FORSCOM, executes garrison operations as directed by Installation Management Command, and conducts homeland defense operations and supports civil authorities.
It is a great place to Live, Train, Deploy from, and Come Home To and Retire. No Mission to Difficult, No Sacrifice too Great, Duty First, Service Always!
History
Fort Riley's history stretches back more than 150 years, as the nation began to focus its attention on overland trails like Oregon and Santa Fe, which were arteries of immigration and commerce. Selection of the fort's site occurred in the fall of 1852 and Soldiers began to garrison the post the following spring. Following the end of the Civil War, Fort Riley's mission changed to protect the workers building railroads from hostile Plains Indians. In 1866, the 7th Cavalry was organized at Fort
Riley under the leadership of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. During the next three decades, Soldiers used Fort Riley as a staging area for protecting the expanding frontier. As a new century neared, the fort was selected as an important fixture in the Army's educational system. In 1892, the School of Cavalry and Light Artillery began operation, succeeded by the Mounted
Service School in 1907, which was eventually renamed the Cavalry School following World War I. The school served as the center for the study and application of cavalry tactics and training. The principles learned by officers including Johnathan Wainwright, Terry Allen, George S. Patton Jr., and others would be put to use in future campaigns and on distant battlefields.
Fort Riley served as a training center during all of the major wars of the 20th century. Training centers were established at Camp Funston, and later, Camp Forsyth, where Soldiers learned skills that would be tested in the trenches of World War I and far-flung battlefields of World War II; the cold of Korea; the jungles of Vietnam; and the sands of Southwest Asia.
Fort Riley is named in honor of Major General Bennett C. Riley who led the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail. The fort was established in 1853 as a military post to protect the movement of people and trade over the Oregon-California and Santa Fe trails. Fort Riley has always had an important role in the defense of our nation and the training of our Soldiers.
The early history of Fort Riley is closely tied to the movement of people and trade along the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails. These routes, a result of the United States perceived "manifest destiny" in the middle of the 19th century, extended American domination and interests into far reaches of a largely unsettled territory. During the 1850s, a number of military posts were established at strategic points to provide protection along these arteries of emigration and commerce.
In the fall of 1852, a surveying party under the command of Capt. Robert Chilton, 1st U.S. Dragoons, selected the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers as a site for one of these forts. This location, approved by the War Department in January 1853, offered an advantageous location from which to organize, train and equip troops in protecting the overland trails.
Surveyors believed the location near the center of the United States and named the site, Camp Center. During the late spring, three companies of the 6th Infantry occupied the camp and began construction of temporary quarters.
On June 27, 1853, Camp Center became Fort Riley -- named in honor of Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Riley who had led the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail in 1829. The "fort" took shape around a broad plain that overlooked the Kansas River valley.
The fort's design followed the standard frontier post configuration: buildings were constructed of the most readily available material - in this case, native limestone.
In the spring, troops were dispatched to escort mail trains and protect travel routes across the plains. At the fort, additional buildings were constructed under the supervision of Capt. Edmund Ogden.
Anticipating greater utilization of the post, Congress authorized appropriations in the spring of 1855 to provide additional quarters and stables for the Dragoons. Ogden again marshaled resources and arrived from Leavenworth in July with 56 mule teams loaded with materials, craftsmen and laborers.
Work had progressed several weeks when cholera broke out among the workers. The epidemic lasted only a few days but claimed 70 lives, including Ogden's. Work gradually resumed and buildings were readied for the arrival in October of the 2nd Dragoons.
As the fort began to take shape, an issue soon to dominate the national scene was debated during the brief territorial legislative session which met at Pawnee in the present area of Camp Whitside.
The first territorial legislature met there in July 1855. Slavery was a fact of life and an issue within garrison just as it was in the rest of the country. The seeds of sectional discord were emerging that would lead to "Bleeding Kansas" and eventually, civil war.
Increased tension and bloodshed between pro and anti-slavery settlers resulted in the use of the Army to "police" the troubled territory. They also continued to guard and patrol the Santa Fe Trail in 1859 and 1860 due to increased Indian threats.
The outbreak of hostilities between the North and South in 1861 disrupted garrison life. Regular units returned east to participate in the Civil War while militia units from Kansas and other states used Riley as a base from which to launch campaigns to show the flag and offer a degree of protection to trading caravans using the Santa Fe Trail. In the early stages of the war, the fort was used to confine Confederate prisoners.
Following Operation Desert Storm, the 1st Infantry Division returned to Fort Riley. But the winds of change were once again blowing across the Army and affected the post. The Cold War of the past four decades was being replaced by new realities in Eastern Europe with the crumbling of the Iron Curtain. Budget cuts and revised strategic thinking resulted in troop cutbacks.
In the spring of 1996, Headquarters of the 1st Infantry Division was transferred from Fort Riley to Germany. A brigade of the Big Red One remained at the post along with a brigade of the 1st Armored Division and the 937th Engineer Group.
On June 5, 1999, Fort Riley once again became a Division Headquarters with the reactivation of the 24th Infantry Division (Mech).
The events of 9-11 and its aftermath brought great changes to Fort Riley. As in past conflicts, the fort became a staging and mobilization center for reserve and active army units as our nation fought a global war on terrorism. Units of the 1st Infantry Division and 1st Armored Division deployed to Southwest Asia.
On August 1, 2006, the 24th Infantry Division colors were cased and the 1st Infantry Division headquarters returned to Fort Riley from Germany.
Soldiers from Fort Riley continue to be deployed to areas in all corners of the world. From southwest Asia to the Caribbean and the Balkans, Fort Riley Soldiers are engaged in peacekeeping and nation-building missions. They continue to hone their skills by periodic deployments to the National Training Center located at Fort Irwin, California.
Like the Soldiers from previous generations - who have trained, stood ready, and deployed - the Soldiers assigned to Fort Riley today look back across a long history of serving and defending our nation. Their sacrifices are many and sometimes the thanks are short – but they fulfill their obligations and duties in a tradition of selfless service. With this sense of duty and dedication that has always been a hallmark of the Army; these Soldiers take these same values into the first decade of the 21st century.
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