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Fort Johnson - Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC)

Fort Johnson is unique in all the Army because it is the only Combat Training Center (CTC) that also has the mission to train and deploy combat and combat support units. From its start as a base for the Louisiana Maneuvers in the 1940s, to a basic training post during Vietnam, to the home of the 5th Mech Division in the 1980s, and its current dual missions as the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) and home of the 2nd ACR and Warrior Brigade, Fort Johnson has excuted all of the Army's mission.

Each fiscal year, JRTC conducts eight rotations and two Mission Readiness Exercises (MREs). A single rotation consists of 16 days. This time is divided roughly as follows: Days 1-4 are spent in the Intermediate Staging Base (ISB) and days 5-16 are spent performing the exercise itself ("in the box"). A typical training scenario at JRTC includes a brigade-sized joint task force deploying to the fictional island of Aragon to support the friendly nation of Cortina. In addition to the approximately 3,500 troops supporting the brigade, there are also approximately 1,500 troops supporting echelons above division (EAD) units during a normal rotation. These EAD units usually include a combat hospital as well as a corps support group. The permissive or forced entry of coalition forces into Cortina is intended to improve stability in the region by quelling an ongoing insurgency in Cortina. A non-MRE rotation generally has three operational phases. First is an insertion and counter-insurgency operation; second is a defense (in response to an Atlantican attack); and third is an attack into a state-of-the-art Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) complex.

The Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT) complex at Fort Johnson, LA is 8km x 7km box within the Joint Readiness Training Center's (JRTC) Maneuver Area consisting of a series of villages and tactical objective sites. The centerpiece is a town called Shughart-Gordon. Shughart-Gordon is a twenty-nine (29) building enclave replicating a third world town. In addition there is an eight (8) building airfield named Self Airfield, and a five (5) building mock military installation named Word Military Compound.

The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process of 1991 moved the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) from Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, to Fort Johnson, Louisiana. The Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) is the light infantry equivalent of the Army's National Training Center, located at Fort Irwin, CA. Located at Fort Johnson, LA, JRTC hosts light infantry and special operations forces from all components for rotations stretching throughout the year. The ARNG receives one brigade rotation each year. The rotations are allocated to the seven light infantry enhanced Separate Brigades (eSBs). As with the other eSBs, the Adjutant General determines if the unit will attend. The 41st eSB (OR) is scheduled to attend in FY98 and the 29th eSB (HI) attended in FY99. The ARNG receives and allocates two LTP rotations annually. These rotations are allocated to the eSBs based on units' relative calendar proximity to scheduled JRTC rotations. As with the NTC, training opportunities exist for Combat Arms, Combat Support and Combat Service Support units to augment BLUFOR and OPFOR units and to provide installation support.

The former "England Air Force Base" is used as the Intermediate Staging Base (ISB) for the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson.

Being a small installation with about 8,000 soldiers, Fort Johnson offers a surprisingly diverse array of facilities and opportunities for soldiers and their families. Educational opportunities, arts and crafts, sports, hunting and fishing, outdoor recreation and other facilities are readily available.

Fort Johnson is located in west-central Louisiana, about 45 miles from Alexandria, 70 miles from Lake Charles, 120 miles from Shreveport, 150 miles from Baton Rouge, 250 from New Orleans, and 180 from Houston. Closer to our front gate are the nearby towns of Leesville, La, located in Vernon Parish, and DeRidder, La, located in Beauregard Parish. (Louisiana has PARISHES not COUNTIES as other states do).

The main post consists of approximately 100,000 acres. Fort Johnson is divided into two cantonment areas known as North Fort Johnson and South Fort Johnson. Approximately 98,000 acres of the main post is within the Kisatchie National Forest and is used by Fort Johnson under an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service. In addition, the headwaters and bodies of several streams are located within the installation.

The Joint Readiness Training Center provides advance level joint training for the Army (Active and Reserve Component), Air Force and Navy contingency forces in deployment and tactical operations under realistic conditions of low to mid intensity combat.

The Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT) complex at Fort Johnson, LA is 8km x 7km box within the Joint Readiness Training Center's (JRTC) Maneuver Area consisting of a series of villages and tactical objective sites. The centerpiece is a town called Shughart-Gordon. Shughart-Gordon is a twenty-nine (29) building enclave replicating a third world town. In addition there is an eight (8) building airfield named Self Airfield, and a five (5) building mock military installation named Word Military Compound.

Self Airfield is a flight landing strip (FLS) just east of North Fort Johnson. It lies within the Johnson AAF Class D airspace, the airspace 600 ft MSL and below will be considered Class G airspace and is controlled by Warrior Control. Aircraft will remain East of K Avenue that parallels Self AAF (first road West of the FLS) and North of Artillery road. All aircraft will depart to the North or East. If winds require a South departure, aircraft must turn East before crossing Artillery road. Aircraft enroute to PAAF will contact Johnson TWR prior to entering the airspace. Use extreme caution when arriving or departing Self FLS, communication with ATC is not possible on the ground! When Self FLS ROZs are not active, Aircraft in-bound will call Warrior Control 2 KM out prior to landing. Departing aircraft will make calls in the blind to Warrior Control prior to take off and will establish comminations when clear of obstacles. During JRTC rotations, when Self-Airfield is active for UAV operations or airland operations (fixed wing), a ROZ will be established.

Naming

Fort Polk is named after Leonidas Polk, a Confederate Officer during the Civil War. What was then called Camp Polk officially opened on August 1, 1941 to initially support the Louisiana Maneuvers as part of the rapid expansion of the U.S. military. Leonidas Polk, a slave owning Episcopal bishop, become a major general in the Confederate Army. Polk attended West Point, where he became a friend of Jefferson Davis. In the years before the war, he enjoyed much of his status and fame due to his familial connections to President James K. Polk. He turned from the military to the ministry after graduation, and was appointed missionary bishop of the Southwest. Bishop Polk embarked on a dual career as priest of small Churches, and as an increasingly rich Tennessee planter. Yes, he owned slaves, about 500 of them. In 1849, a cholera outbreak killed one hundred of the people Polk enslaved, and, in 1854, Polk lost the plantation because of heavy debts. The Bishop had long seen a need for a distinctively Southern Episcopal university....thus, The University of the South, in Sewanee, TN was born. In 1861, he 'buckled the sword over the gown,' and was appointed as major general of the Provisional Army of the Confederacy. During the War, his close friendship with Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederate States) led to his continued promotion and status even while his actions as a commander led to repeated defeats. At Shiloh, Polk earned a reputation for courage and displayed an ineptitude for logistics. He failed to attack when ordered by Bragg to do so at Chickamauga and was removed from command. He commanded troops at the Battles of Belmont and Shiloh and in the unsuccessful southern effort to repulse General William Tecumseh Sherman's advance on Atlanta. For all his problems as a General, Polk remains the only man to beat US Grant on the field of battle at Belmont, MO. He was killed at the Battle of Pine Mountain, near Kennesaw, Georgia, on June 14, 1864 by a United States artillery barrage while scouting a small ridge near Atlanta.

Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William A. LaPlante on 05 January 2023 directed all Department of Defense organizations to begin full implementation of the Commission on the Naming of Items of the Department of Defense ("Naming Commission") recommendations to remove the names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America.

The Commission recommended Fort Polk be changed to Fort Johnson after SGT William Henry Johnson. Late into the evening on Tuesday, May 14, 1918, William Henry Johnson stood sentry at the foremost redoubt on the flank of a forward trench in the Argonne Forest. Johnson’s presence at that position alone was improbable: most American Soldiers were yet to arrive in Europe as the nation struggled through the logistics of training, equipping, and deploying an army of four million volunteers and draftees. When they did arrive, fewer still of those Soldiers would be African-American, as the racial politics of the age led American commander John J. Pershing to include only white combat troops in his expeditionary force. By enlisting in a segregated army, shipping out months earlier than many U.S. Soldiers, and being attached to an allied force, Johnson and his fellow sentry were – against all odds – Black Americans wearing French uniforms at the tip of democracy’s spear in the final spring of World War I.

Sounding the alarm before singlehandedly facing the enemy, Johnson threw grenades until his supply was exhausted. When he ran out of grenades, Johnson fired his rifle until he spent his ammunition. When he ran out of bullets, Johnson charged the enemy, swinging his rifle as a club. And when he observed two Germans about to carry his wounded comrade away for interrogation, Johnson abandoned his rifle and instead drew his bolo knife, fighting off the raiders at close quarters and pushing them back from the position.

Johnson became the United States’ first hero of the Great War, immediately receiving the French Croix de Guerre for his actions. He was the first American Soldier ever to receive the award. Johnson was an icon on the home front, and his story motivated many African-Americans to support the war effort. Serving with his unit through many subsequent battles, he became known as “Black Death” and was paraded through New York City when he returned.

Unable to effectively work as a result of his wounds and lacking appropriate treatment for them, he died destitute in 1929. He posthumously received the Purple Heart in 1996 and the Distinguished Service Cross in 2002; the latter was upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2015.

History

Consolidation of military forces within U.S. borders led to many changes at Fort Polk. The stationing of new units with rapid deployment missions made Fort Polk a platform from which soldiers have recently deployed to Haiti, Southwest Asia, Surname, Panama and Bosnia to name a few. Units currently stationed at Fort Polk include the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, affiliated with the XVIII Airborne Corps, Warrior Brigade (Headquarters Command) contains a number of support units with early deploying wartime missions, Medical, Dental and Military Police Commands complete Fort Polk's structure.

Construction of Camp Polk began January 28, 1941 on the broad, rolling plains that at the time contained little but cut-over pine forests, a few dilapidated shacks and some range-wire fencing. The camp's first commander, Colonel Otto Wagner, arrived at the post with a few soldiers in March 1941. Thousands of wooden barracks sprang up virtually overnight to support an Army preparing to battle Axis forces on the North African, European and Pacific fronts. Camp Polk - named for Confederate Lieutenant General and Episcopal Bishop Leonides Polk - was officially completed August 1, 1941.

From the end of World War II until the early 1960s, the post suffered a series of traumatic closings and reopenings. During much of this time, it was open only in the summers to support reserve component training. The United States continued to look at Camp Polk whenever crisis arose, though, and active Army units were stationed here temporarily during the Korean War and the Berlin Crisis.

Fort Polk's reputation began in 1962 with its conversion to an infantry training center. As soldiers prepared for combat in Southeast Asia, commanders made the most of Fort Polk's 198,000 acres - especially a small portion filled with dense, jungle-like vegetation. For the next 12 years, more soldiers were shipped out to Vietnam from Fort Polk than from any other American training base. In 1974, as hostilities in Southeast Asia drew to a close, Fort Polk's continued role in U.S. defense was signalled by its selection as the home of the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized). About the same time, Congress passed the largest military construction bill ever allocated to a single installation.

Soldiers of the World War II and Vietnam eras would scarcely recognize the new Fort Polk. Most of the old wooden buildings have been replaced with modern barracks, motor pools, unit administrative offices, and service facilities. More than 4,000 married soldiers reside with their families in recently constructed on-post housing units as well. After more than half a century of service, U.S. leaders continue to place their confidence in Fort Polk. The 1990s brought new challenges as the United States cuts its military strength in response to the end of the Cold War and the breakup of the Soviet Union.

In July 1993, the Joint Readiness Training Center, one of the Defense Department's premier training facilities, relocated to Fort Polk from Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. The 1st of the 509th Infantry Regiment serves as the opposing force to the combat and special operations units rotating through training exercises here. The 2nd Armored Division - formerly the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) - left Louisiana after a 20 year residency. The division began its relocation to Fort Hood, Texas, in 1992 and completed the move in December l993. More than a dozen other units have been reassigned here from Europe and other U.S. locations as the nation enhances and realigns its contingency force within its own borders.

In October 1999, the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army articulated a vision to posture the Army to meet the demands of the 21st century. Transformation addresses the need for change based on emerging security challenges of the 21st century. Chief among these challenges is the need to be able to respond more rapidly to different types of operations requiring military action. The Army proposes to implement force transformation and mission capability enhancements at Fort Polk with respect to facilities construction. The purpose of the proposed action is to bring the Interim Force to operational capability.

On November 17, 2001, MG Charles H. Swannack, Jr., Commander, Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) and Fort Polk, made a decision to conduct Rotation 02-02, a special training exercise in late November and December 2001. The purpose of Rotation 02-02 was to provide a force-on-force Combat Training Center (CTC) experience for the 1st Battalion, 33rd Armored Regiment (1-33 AR), 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (1-25 ID) (light). This was necessary so that each Battalion Commander can participate in a realistic, Brigade sized force-on-force maneuver exercise. JRTC was one of three maneuver CTCs in the world and was the only place where an Army light infantry brigade can train for war on a realistic battlefield with all its personnel and equipment along with other supporting military services. Rotation 02-02 will include an armored battalion and a light infantry battalion operating in the field and a light infantry battalion operating in simulation. Relative to previous JRTC exercises, Rotation 02-02 will involve increased numbers of tracked and wheeled vehicles. Rotation 02-02 will also be the first JRTC combat exercise to occur in the month of December. Rotation 02-02 will use Army-owned lands at Fort Polk and Peason Ridge and US Forest Service Intensive Use Area lands in the Vernon Unit of the Kisatchie National Forest. The Limited Use Area of the Forest will not be used.

As of early 2002 proposed construction activities within the Fort Polk cantonment areas include repair of the Fort Polk Army airfield and taxiway and construction of the following: a new 77,500 square foot Mission Training Support Facility, an aircraft maintenance hangar at the Fort Polk airfield, a deployment storage facility, an arms storage facility, a battalion headquarters and materials maintenance center, a company headquarters facility, a consolidated rigging facility, and a pre-positioned equipment and maintenance complex. Proposed construction activities in the Fort Polk maneuver areas and ranges include: digitization of the existing Multi-Purpose range Complex, construction of a sniper range at an existing small arms range and a pallet processing facility, and expansion of the existing alert holding area and the ammunition supply point.