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Basic Combat Training Brigade

Basic Combat Training Brigade leads and conducts basic combat, common military training to produce highly motivated, well disciplined, physically fit, combat skilled and values-led Army team members, who are prepared for Advanced Individual Training and ready to make a direct and positive contribution to the individual combat readiness of the Army.

From the Army's establishment in 1775 to the beginning of World War II initial entry training was the responsibility of the TO&E unit which the enlistee was assigned. While this system was suitable for a small peacetime Army, it could not satisfy the demands of wartime conditions.

In response to this shortfall, the War Department developed the Replacement Training system in 1940. These RTS consisted of training regiments normally composed of four training battalions. Each training copany had a capacity of approximately 240 soldiers. In October 1942, the Replacement and School Command established a standardized training program for all the RTCs known as the Mobilization Training Program (MTP). This program was modified during the war as a result of combat experience and a shift in emphasis from fillers to loss replacements. The training program of these branch immaterial centers was eight weeks in length and consisted of infantry rifle training.

During this period, Ft. Benning received its first contingent of selectees for the new Basic Training Center at the Infantry Training Center at the Infantry School in June 1943. The first of over 12,000 young selectees to arrive at Ft. Benning were assigned to the 4th Regiment, located in the Harmony Church area, and later in the 6th Regiment, located in the Frying Pan area of the main post.

Following the end of the war combat divisions were assigned to the RTCs to conduct training operations. In April 1949, a 14 week Basic Military Program was adopted. This new program was designed to provide progressive individual training to basic military subjects common to all soldiers.

During the Korean War the RTC system was unable to handle the mobilization demand. Over 50 percent of non-prior service personnel training during this period received their initial entry training in an operational TO&E unit. As a result, in October 1953, the replacement training cycle was modified to one essentially resembling its present form.

The change in October 1953 from the integrated training system which had existed since 1941 to the Basic Combat Training -- Advanced Individual Training system was a result of the Trainee, Transient, and Patient Plan developed by the Department of the Army G-1. The pricipal objective of this personnel management plan was to reduce the large number of personnel in a pipeline status at any given time. This plan required all enlisted replacement and school training be conducted under a block system. All recruits would receive eight weeks of basic combat training under a common, branch immaterial Army Training Program, followed by eight or more weeks of advanced individual training. The system of Basic Combat Training followed by Advanced Individual Training has been used by the Army since 1953.

In Feb. 1956, the use of division designations to identify training centers was discontinued and the designation United States Army Training Center (USATC) was adopted. During the Vietnam War, the increased requirements for replacements exceeded the capacity of the expanded USATC system. As in the preceeding three wars, the Army resorted to training replacements in TO&E units. Ft. Benning, during this period of conflict, hosted basic training centers at the Sand Hill and Harmony Church areas. Before closing in 1970, Ft. Benning trained 129,000 basic combat soldiers in these facilities.