Historic California Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields

Fort Ord

(Camp Gigling, Camp Ord, Camp Clayton)

Fort Ord operated as a permanent installation of Headquarters, Department of the Army, Forces Command. The primary mission of Fort Ord was to train troops. It provided command, administration, and logistical support and other functions necessary to operate and maintain facilities at Fort Ord and its subinstallations, the Presidio of Monterey and Fort Hunter Liggett.

 

Fort Ord is near Monterey Bay in Monterey County, California, approximately 80 miles south of San Francisco. The base consists of about 28,000 acres near the cities Seaside, Sand City, Monterey, Del Rey Oaks, and Marina. Laguna Seca Recreation Area and Toro Regional Park border Fort Ord to the south and southeast, respectively. Land use east of Fort Ord is primarily agricultural.

 

Fort Ord was established in 1917, originally as Camp Gigling, as a military training base for infantry troops. In 1917, the US Army bought the present day East Garrison and nearby lands on the east side of Fort Ord to use as a maneuver and training ground for field artillery and cavalry troops stationed at the Presidio of Monterey. Before the Army's use of the property, the area was agricultural, as is much of the surrounding land today. No permanent improvements were made until the late 1930s, when administrative buildings, barracks, mess halls, tent pads, and a sewage treatment plant were constructed.

 

This facility was designated as Camp Ord in 1939 and became Fort Ord in 1940. In 1938, additional agricultural property was purchased for the development of the Main Garrison. At the same time, the beachfront property was donated to the Army. The Main Garrison was constructed between 1940 and the 1960s, starting in the northwest corner of the base and expanding southward and eastward.

 

From 1947 to 1975, Fort Ord was a basic training center. After 1975, the 7th Infantry Division (Light) occupied Fort Ord. Light infantry troops operated without heavy tanks, armor, or artillery.

 

In 1990, the US Secretary of Defense announced that the military would begin a process to reduce the number of nationwide military installations and Fort Ord was one of the bases named for closure. In 1991, it was formally announced that Fort Ord would be downsized to a small enclose (closed). The 1991 Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC91) recommended that Fort Ord be closed and troops of the 7th Infantry Division (Light) be relocated to Fort Lewis, Washington.

 

Although Fort Ord was closed in September 1994, the Army retained approximately 5 percent of the property for a Presidio of Monterey (POM) annex and reserve center. The POM annex is on a 785-acre parcel near Gigling and North-South Roads. The Army retained a 12-acre parcel near Imjin Gate at Reservation Road for continued use as an Army reserve center. The Defense Language Institute is located on the Presidio of Monterey (POM), about eight miles from the Presidio of Monterey Annex, where the majority of students and permanent party assigned to the Institute live in military housing on a portion of what used to be Fort Ord. Also located on the Annex are the commissary, post exchange, main chapel, the Youth Services Center, Army Community Service, AAFES gas station, the Thrift Shop, the library, a Child Development Center, a grammar school and a middle school.

 

A local Community Task Force was formed to address the impacts of this announcement and prepare a strategy report. This report helped set direction for many activities that were to follow. Following completion of the report, the Task Force disbanded and a new group was formed to develop a Base Reuse Plan. The new group, called the Fort Ord Reuse Group (FORG) was formed. The Base Reuse Plan was in initial preparation stages when special State legislation was passed changing FORG into a governing body known as the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA). FORA became responsible for planning, financing, implementing, and regulating a base reuse plan to receive former Fort Ord property from the U.S. Department of the Army for development by the local communities.

 

A Multi-Range Area (MRA) is located in the south-central portion of Fort Ord. Lands within the boundaries of the MRA are expected to have the highest density of ordnance and explosives (OE), with specific target areas having the highest densities. OE is defined as bombs and warheads; guided and ballistic missiles; artillery and mortar; containerized and uncontainerized explosives and propellants; and all similar and related items and components explosive in nature or otherwise designed to cause damage to personnel or material; soils with explosives constituents sufficient to be reactive and present an imminent safety hazard. Known OE sites are posted with warning signs and are off-limits to unauthorized people.

 

The area's climate is characterized by warm, dry summers and cool, rainy winters. The Pacific Ocean is the principal influence on the climate at Fort Ord, causing fog and onshore winds that moderate temperature extremes. Daily ambient air temperatures typically range from 40 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, but temperatures in the low 100s have occurred. Fog is common in the morning throughout the year. Winds are generally from the west.

 

The average annual rainfall of 14 inches occurs almost entirely between November and April. Because the predominant soil is permeable sand, runoff is limited and streamflow only occurs intermittently and within the very steep canyons in the eastern portion of Fort Ord.

 

Copied with permission from globalsecurity.com

 

 

Fort Ord History

by Justin Rughe

 

 

Located six miles east of Monterey on 28,000 acres as an artillery base called Gigling Field Artillery Range, this post became one of the Army's largest training and replacement centers. It was designated Camp Ord by General Orders, No. 11, War Department, 1933 in honor of General E. O. Ord. Born in 1818 in Cumberland, Maryland, General Ord was the direct descendent of King George IV. Edward Otho Cresap Ord graduated from West Point Army Military Academy in 1839. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and assigned to the Third Artillery and sent to Florida where he saw active service in the Seminole War. He was sent to Monterey where he did garrison duty during the American Conquest of California. He saw active service against the Indians in the Northwest. He was given the rank of Brigadier General of Volunteers at the outbreak of the Civil War and was advanced to Major General on December 20, 1861 and commanded the Left Wing of General Grant's Army. He was appointed Commander of the 18th Army Corps on July 21, 1864 and took part in the Richmond Campaign. In 1868 General Ord was made Brigadier General in the Regular Army and mustered out of the Volunteer Service. He retired in 1880 and in 1881 by Special Act of Congress was commissioned Major General. He died in 1883 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Little improvements occurred at Camp Ord until 1938. Then with the clouds of war hanging over Europe the modern history of the reservation began. WPA construction crews began work on permanent buildings as well as the wooden barracks, mess halls and other temporary structures needed to serve the men and officers of the newly reactivated 7th Division.

 

On August 14, 1940 Camp Ord, under command of then Brigadier General "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell, was designated Fort Ord. By the end of 1941, some $12 million in improvements were completed.

The 7th Division trained at Fort Ord and used it as the base for its defense of the west coast until it was made a motorized division and sent to the Mojave Desert to train. The 7th returned to Fort Ord later for amphibious training, remaining till deploying to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska in 1943 to expel the Japanese invaders.

 

Fort Ord was a staging area for other famous fighting units during World War II who were to be deployed to the Pacific Theater. These included the 3rd, 27th, 43rd and 35th Divisions. At the height of its activity as a training and replacement center during World War II, the post housed over 50,000 troops. Its average population stood at nearly 35,000 soldiers. Following the war, Fort Ord became a training center for the Infantry, offering basic and advanced training. The 4th, 5th, and 6th Infantry Divisions all conducted training at Fort Ord. In 1957 the 6th Army assumed that mission and continued through the Vietnam era. During the 1960s Fort Ord also served as a staging area for units departing for Asia, while continuing its mission as an infantry-training center. In 1959 Fritzsche Army Airfield was completed with a 3,000-foot runway. It had five hangars, the largest some 20,000 square feet.

 

In 1974, the 7th Infantry Division was reactivated at Fort Ord, bringing it full circle. In 1975 basic and advanced unit training was ended.

 

During the early 1980s the 7th Infantry Division was chosen to become the newly established "light" infantry divisional concept. The 7th Infantry Division remained at Fort Ord throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

In April of 1991, the Secretary of Defense announced the proposed closure of bases; Fort Ord was one of 100 bases on the list. In closing the Fort the Army retained portions of the Fort for the Defense Language Institute and the Naval Postgraduate School to be known as the Presidio of Monterey Annex. Disposal implementation of the rest of the Fort was by the Corps of Engineers. At its closing Fort Ord had 6,000 family housing units and 4,200 structures. A major part of the Fort eventually became a state university campus. The 7th Infantry Division and Fort Ord Museum were established in 1990 using five of the original buildings located at the 12th Street Gate. With the transfer of a brigade of the 7th infantry to Fort Lewis in Washington State and the disestablishment of the rest of the division the museum was closed and the artifacts transferred to other organizations. Fritzsche Army Airfield became the municipal airport of the City of Marina. The Fort Ord Realignment Authority (FORA) was formed to help local governments work with the Army to transfer various parts of the Fort to their jurisdictions.

 

References: Publications of the 7th Infantry Division and Fort Ord Museum.

Fort Ord in World War II

From the Fort Ord Panorama Newspaper

 

Fort Ord began its evolution into what we would recognize today in June 1940. The area purchased in 1917 and known to the troops at the Presidio of Monterey as the “devil’s own acres” had been used by them as a training and maneuver area since World War I. The area sometimes known as the Gigling Reservation then consisted of 15,000 acres of manzanita scrub brush and sand. Elements of the 3rd Infantry Division participated in exercises here in early 1940 before building began in earnest.

The 7th Infantry Division was activated by order of the War Department on 1 July 1940 at Fort Ord with the soon to be famous Brigadier General Joseph Stilwell as its first commander since World War I. It began moving into a tent city at Camp Ord (later called East Garrison), while a more permanent post was hurriedly constructed in an area close to Highway 1, known as Camp Clayton. One of the units stationed at the Presidio of Monterey during the inter-war years, 2/76th Field Artillery, became the first unit of the new division. The other unit that was stationed at the Presidio of Monterey, the 11th Cavalry, was soon moved to southern California for duty on the Mexican Border. The 17th Infantry Regiment, a unit traditionally associated with the 7th Infantry Division, was pulled from various posts throughout the country and assembled at Fort Ord. Other units assembled or activated at Fort Ord for inclusion in the Division were: the 32nd Infantry, the 53rd Infantry (activated 1 August 1940), and the 31st Field Artillery (activated 1 July 1940). Non-divisional units at Fort Ord were: the 19th Engineer Regiment (Combat, Corps) -- this unit originally activated as the 39th Engineer Regiment (General Service) on 27 June 1940 was redesignated as the 19th four days later -- and the 1st Medical Regiment.

As units moved into newly built barracks at Camp Clayton, the tents at Camp Ord became available for National Guard units called to active duty during the national emergency. The 147th Artillery (South Dakota National Guard) arrived Camp Clayton at Camp Ord after a remarkable overland journey from South Dakota that began in a blizzard. The, artillery regiments were later broken up to provide the separate field artillery battalions that were married with regiments throughout the army to form the regimental combat teams that were used during World War II and after. The 76th Field Artillery, for instance, was split into the 74th, 75th, and 76th field artillery battalions in January 1941.

By December of 1940, Fort Ord had 1,098 buildings finished or in progress. Just under $15 million in contracts had been let for construction at Fort Ord by that time. A 1,500-bed hospital on the new post opened in February 1941. Additional land was acquired that expanded the post to about 30,000 acres. Facilities at the Hearst Ranch, acquired in October 1940 and later renamed Camp Hunter Liggett were also constructed by elements of the 19th Engineers. Fourth Army conducted a large command post exercise there in the summer of 1941. Another unit, the 250th Coast Artillery (National Guard), was assembled at Camp McQuaide near Watsonville. This post later became a coast artillery replacement training center and then a large military confinement facility.

These posts were all included in the Fort Ord-Presidio of Monterey area. In December of 1940, the III Corp headquarters was installed in the post headquarters buildings at the Presidio of Monterey. The corps was comprised of the 7th Infantry Division and the 40th Infantry Division (National Guard) at Camp San Luis Obispo.

In January of 1941, Stilwell became the III Corps commander. In spite of this transfer, and subsequent duty in the China-Burma--India Theater, Stilwell would be forever associated with the division he activated and built. Brigadier General White, the assistant division commander, was appointed as the new commander of the division.

Throughout this period the Presidio (and Fort Ord) was a regional reception center for draftees called to duty during the general mobilization. As most of the draftees that arrived at Fort Ord were from California and other western states, the 7th Infantry Division had “an unusually large percentage of Mexicans and Indians.” Records indicate that there was a training establishment of some sort as there is mention of 11th and 13th training battalions at Camp Clayton but it unclear when and how these units were used. Many of the new inductees went straight to units as they were activated or expanded without benefit of basic training, as we know it today.

Just prior to the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, the 53rd Infantry was transferred to the Presidio of San Francisco to replace the 30th Infantry, which had been transferred after many years of duty there. The 159th Infantry of the 40th Infantry Division from Camp San Luis Obispo replaced them at Fort Ord. Much of this information was culled from yellowing copies of the Panorama. After the attack on Pearl Harbor and throughout the war years, the Panorama, by necessity, omitted any mention of specific units or movements. Fort Ord units guarded the coast and critical facilities in central and northern California for months after the attack. The 3rd Infantry Division, which went on to fame in, the European Theater trained here before heading off to the East Coast and the landings in North Africa in November 1942. The headquarters of the 27th Infantry Division was activated at Fort Ord in January of 1942 before moving to Hawaii the following month. The precursor to XVIII Corps (Airborne), the II Armored Corps, was also born at the Presidio of Monterey in January of that year. In the fall of 1942, the 43rd Infantry Division was at Fort Ord before departing for New Zealand. XVIII Corps was born at the Presidio of Monterey on 10 October 1943 by the redesignation of the II Armored Corps headquartered there. Another unit of interest, the 1st Filipino Infantry Regiment, was activated in April and eventually included a few veterans of fighting on Bataan that had been wounded, evacuated, and returned to duty in the United States. Black troops were also at Fort Ord. Most were in smaller “colored” quartermaster units. Monterey had its own “colored” USO and (lest you think that awareness of black history was a new thing) the week beginning 8 February 1943 was designated “Negro1 History Week.” The first contingent of German prisoners-of- war arrived in March 1943.

As the war went on, most of the large units had already been activated and had deployed overseas or were deploying. Emphasis shifted from activating and preparing units for overseas movement to supplying individual replacements for existing units. Problems with the readiness and training of individuals already sent overseas led to the formation of two centers with specific intention of preparing replacements for ground combat forces for overseas movement. One was established on the East Coast at Fort Meade, the other was established on the West Coast at Fort Ord. As the last major units departed the continental United States for campaigns in such places as the Aleutians in the summer of 1943, room was available on the installations like Fort Ord. Army Ground Forces (similar to TRADOC) Replacement Depot 2 opened in August 1943.

World War II placed increased emphasis on amphibious warfare particularly in the Pacific Theater and Fort Ord with access to the many beaches of the Monterey Bay became the home of an amphibious training unit designated the 18th Armored Group. Pictures in the Panorama of the various types of amphibious equipment used in and around Fort Ord as the war progressed, reveals the evolution of amphibious warfare during World War II from simple over-the-side Higgins boats to sophisticated tracked vehicles and drop ramp landing craft. Fort Ord “amphibs” participated in the D-Day landings and in all the Army amphibious operations in the Pacific. New equipment for amphibious warfare tested and reviewed by the Landing Vehicle Board established by the Army here on 11 April 1944. The Amphibious Equipment Branch superceded this shortly after the war in Oct.1945.

Other notable events in the Monterey area during the rest of the war included the opening of the Stilwell Hall enlisted club on 24 September 1943 and the movement of the newly reactivated Fourth Army Headquarters to the Presidio of Monterey from San Jose. After the departure of Fourth Army for Texas in 1943, III Corps returned to the Presidio of Monterey from Fort McPherson in January 1944. Headquarters III Corps departed in August 1944 and was replaced be a new type of headquarters that became a model for others around the country, the 1st Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, Special Troops, Army Ground Forces, was established at Fort Ord in August 1944. As large headquarters that had been responsible for miscellaneous units inn the United States deployed overseas, units like this were established to exercise command and control over these units. There was an unsuccessful attempt by 500 German POWs to escape by tunnel in early August and Italian Service Companies consisting of former Italian POWs who had volunteered for service with US forces (Italy had surrendered) began arriving in September.

After V—E day and preparations were underway for intensified operations in the Pacific culminating in the invasion of Japan. A combined Army-Navy Civil Affairs Staging Area (CASA) was established to prepare military government personnel. Another headquarters, XXXVI Corps, was formed at the Presidio. After the first atomic bomb was dropped in August, this corps was replaced by the famous VII Corps, returning from Europe in preparation for service against Japan and had most recently been at Camp San Luis Obispo. As the war wound down the discharge center that originally been at the Presidio of Monterey was moved to Camp Beale (now Beale Air Force Base). Fort Ord continued on its training capacity after the war.

1 All descriptions of ethnicities are as indicated on the original historical documentation.

Army Units Assigned to Giglang Military Reservation, Camp Ord and Fort Ord

Data Source	Date(s)	Unit(s)
US Army Order of Battle 1919-1940	1919-1941	Annual Training Units: Headquarters, 91st Division (Organized Reserves) Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 79th Infantry Brigade (California National Guard) Headquarters and Headquarters Companies, 181st and 182nd nfantry Brigades (Organized reserves) Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 162nd Cavalry Brigade (Organized Reserves) Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 166th Field Artillery Brigade (Organized Reserve) 32nd Infantry Regiment (Regular Army Inactive) 159th, 160th, 184th and 185th Infantry Regiments (California National Guard) 361st - 364th Infantry Regiments (Organized Reserves) 542nd Infantry Battalion (Organized Reserves) 17th Cavalry Regiment (Regular Army Inactive) 323nd Cavalry Regiment (Organized Reserves) 162nd Machine Gun Squadron (Organized Reserves) 32nd and 54th Field Artillery Regiment (Regular Army Inactive) 143rd Field Artillery Regiment (California National Guard) 346th - 348th, 414th, 426th and 439th Field Artillery Regiments (Organized Reserves) 316th Ammunition Train (Organized Reserves) 116th Engineer Regiment (Idaho National Guard) 316th, 349, 385th, and 386th Engineer Regiments (Organized Reserves) 444th, 464th, 465th, 616th and 699th Enineer Battalions (Organized Reserves) 302nd Chemical Regiment (Organized Reserves) 17th Medical Regiment (Regular Army Inactive) 115th Medical Regiment (California National Guard) 316th and 369th Medical Regiments (Organized Reserves) IX Corps, XIII Corps and XIX Corps Quartermaster Trains (Organized Reserves) 91st Division Quartermaster Train (Organized Reserves) 29th and 40th Quartermaster Regiments (Regular Army Inactive) 416th Quartermaster Regiment (Organized Reserves) 316th Observation Squadron (Organized Reserves) Citizens Military Training Camps: Infantry Cavalry Field Artillery Corps of Engineers Dignal Corps
US Army Order of Battle 1919-1940	1940-1941	7th Division 17th Infantry Regiment 53rd Infantry Regiment 31st Field Artillery Regiment

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Updated 14 February 2022