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Fort Stewart is a United States Army post in the U.S. state of Georgia. It lies primarily in Liberty and Bryan counties, but also extends into smaller portions of Evans, Long, and Tattnall Counties. The nearby city of Hinesville, along with Ft. Stewart and the rest of Liberty and Long Counties, comprise the Hinesville metropolitan area. Much of Fort Stewart's garrison are members of the 3rd Infantry Division.
The Fort Stewart Military Reservation includes about , including land that was formerly the town of Clyde, Georgia.
3rd Infantry Division
On 1 July 1940, the first 5,000 acres (20 km) were bought and subsequent purchases followed. Eventually the reservation would include over 280,000 acres (1100 km) and stretch over five counties. The large expanse of property was required for the firing ranges and impact areas which an antiaircraft artillery training center would need for live-fire training.
In November 1940, the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Training Center was officially designated as Camp Stewart, in honor of General Daniel Stewart, a native of Liberty County, who had fought with Francis Marion during the American Revolution, and who became one of the county's military heroes. An announcement of the new post's name was made in January 1941.
During the early months, training was done on wooden mock-ups, since real antiaircraft guns were in short supply. Live-firing exercises were conducted on the beaches of St. Augustine and Amelia Island, Florida, since the necessary ranges and impact areas had not been completed at Camp Stewart. This live-fire training over the ocean continued until September 1941, while at Camp Stewart practice firing and searchlight training progressed. In fall of 1941, the Carolina Maneuvers were held, and all the antiaircraft units from Camp Stewart participated.
Savannah's First Bryan Baptist Church had a special service for soldiers from the Savannah Air Base and Camp Stewart 21 December 1941. Reverend Terrill wrote a letter to Asa H. Gordon, director of the Colored SSSS, extending the invitation to the soldiers. Church members took at least one soldier home from the service for Sunday dinner. Reverend Terrill, at the special service for soldiers, preached on "The Negro's Place in National Defense". Thelma Lee Stevens gave the welcome address. Scout Westley W. Law was master of ceremonies.(source: page 71, Dr. Charles J. Elmore, "First Bryan 1788–2001 The Oldest Continuous Black Baptist Church in America.") The National Guard units departed, and new units came in for training. Facilities were expanded and improved. Antiaircraft artillery training was upgraded and a detachment of Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) soon arrived at the air facility on post, Liberty Field, to fly planes to tow targets for the live-fire exercises. Eventually, radio-controlled airplane targets came into use as a more effective and safer means of live-fire practice.
As the war progressed, Camp Stewart's training programs continued expanding to keep pace with the needs placed upon it. Units were shipped out promptly upon completion of their training, and new units received in their place. The camp provided well-trained soldiers for duty in the European, Mediterranean, North African, and Pacific Theaters.
Beside its initial purposes as an antiaircraft artillery training center, Camp Stewart also served as a cooks' and bakers' school, and as a staging area for a number of Army postal units. By spring 1944, the camp was bulging at its seams, as more than 55,000 soldiers occupied the facility during the build-up for the D-Day invasion. Almost overnight, though, the post was virtually empty, as these units shipped out for England. With the D-Day invasion and Allied control of the air over Europe, the need for antiaircraft units diminished, and in response, the antiaircraft training at Camp Stewart was phased out. By January 1945, only the POW camps were still functioning.
When the Korean War eventually cooled down, the U.S. obviously would be required to maintain a ready and able military force to deal with any potential threat to itself and its allies. Camp Stewart would have a role to play in that mission. The decision was made that the post would no longer be viewed as a temporary installation. On 21 March 1956, it was redesignated as Fort Stewart. Its role would continue to evolve in response to specific needs and world events.
In 1959, Fort Stewart was redesignated as an Armor and Artillery Firing Center, since its old antiaircraft ranges and impact areas were better suited for this purpose in the new age of missiles. By 1961, a feeling arose that Fort Stewart may have served its usefulness, and a movement was afoot to deactivate the post again. However, the age of missiles brought with it new threats and a new mission for Fort Stewart.
Hunter Army Airfield covers about and is also the home of the U.S. Coast Guard Station, Savannah – the largest helicopter unit in the Coast Guard. It provides Savannah and the Southeast United States with around-the-clock search-and-rescue coverage of its coastal areas.
In 1969, President Nixon planned to reduce American involvement in Vietnam by training the Vietnamese military to take over the war. In conjunction with this, helicopter flight training for Vietnamese pilots began at the AHTD in 1970 and continued until 1972. Gradually America's involvement in Vietnam dwindled and by mid-1972 the flight training aspect of Fort Stewart's mission was terminated, and both Hunter Field and Fort Stewart reverted to garrison status. The following year, Hunter Field was closed entirely and Fort Stewart sat idle, with the exception of the National Guard training, which continued to be conducted at the installation.
In October 1974, Headquarters, 24th Infantry Division was activated at Fort Stewart. This historic unit, which had seen active and arduous service in the Pacific during WW II and in the Korean War, and served as an element of NATO forces defending Western Europe, had been inactive since 1970. The "Victory" Division, as it was known, was going to make Fort Stewart its home. Perhaps fittingly, the V-shaped layout of the main post itself represented the "V" for the Victory Division. The 24th Infantry Division would make Fort Stewart uniquely its own.
With the reactivation of the 24th Infantry Division, the post entered a new phase in its history. Facilities were upgraded, and new permanent structures replaced many of the old World War II-era wooden buildings from the days of Camp Stewart. On 1 October 1980, the 24th Infantry Division was designated a mechanized infantry division, and assigned as the heavy division of the XVIII Airborne Corps, the core element of the newly organized Rapid Deployment Force. This designation was the fruition of that potential first realized by those who served at the post during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The 24th Infantry Division began intensive training over the expanse of piney woods and lowlands of the post, and conducted live-fire exercises on many of the old Camp Stewart antiaircraft ranges. Additional deployment training and exercises took division units from Georgia's woodlands to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, as well as to other areas of the world, such as Egypt and Turkey. The division was regularly seen in REFORGER exercises in Germany and BRIGHT STAR in Egypt. Its training was continuous. The mission of the Rapid Deployment Force was to be prepared to deploy to practically any point on the globe at a moment's notice, to deal with whatever threat might be discerned.
In August 1990, Iraq invaded and overran neighboring Kuwait, and threatened to do the same to Saudi Arabia. The Port of Savannah worked around the clock to load and ship the division's heavy equipment, while aircraft shuttles from Hunter Field flew the division's personnel to Saudi Arabia. Within a month, the entire division had been reassembled in Saudi Arabia to face the possible invasion of that country by Iraqi forces. Fort Stewart had a growing influx of National Guard and Reserve units, who were being mobilized to support the operations in Saudi Arabia and to assume the tasks at the post, which had formerly been accomplished by 24th Infantry Division personnel. In many ways, Fort Stewart appeared to be almost a ghost town, as never before had the entire division been deployed from the post at one time. Within eight months, the crisis at the Persian Gulf had concluded, and the 24th Infantry Division triumphantly returned to its home in coastal Georgia.
The post-Cold War drawdown of forces in Europe resulted in many storied units coming home to the US. On 25 April 1996, "ownership" of Fort Stewart passed, as the 24th Infantry Division was inactivated and the 3rd Infantry Division was reactivated, thus began a new chapter in the history of Fort Stewart. Fort Stewart also was a leading mobilization station for Army units preparing for tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as two-week National Guard annual training.
In January 2025, two soldiers were killed during a field-training exercise at the facility.
Six soldiers received Meritorious Service Medals for their actions in apprehending Radford. In a ceremony the day after the attack, the six soldiers were decorated by Army secretary Daniel P. Driscoll on behalf of president Donald Trump and the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth. Brigadier General John Lubas, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, credited the soldiers with saving lives due to their heroic actions.
Radford was charged with two counts of attempted premeditated murder, three counts of aggravated assault inflicting grievous bodily harm, three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of domestic violence. Radford received a charge of domestic violence as one of the shooting victims was an "intimate partner of the accused". Attorneys for the Army allege that Radford admitted to purposely attempting to target his unit's leadership in the attack. Radford, as an active-duty soldier and because the crime was committed on a military installation, would be prosecuted by a military court.
| + Fort Stewart CDP, Georgia – Racial and ethnic composition !Race / Ethnicity ( NH = Non-Hispanic) !Pop 2000 !Pop 2010 ! !% 2000 !% 2010 ! | |||
| White alone (NH) | 5,216 | 2,891 | 45.48% |
| Black or African American alone (NH) | 4,024 | 1,141 | 24.34% |
| Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) | 71 | 28 | 0.67% |
| Asian Americans alone (NH) | 203 | 80 | 2.54% |
| Pacific Islander alone (NH) | 42 | 20 | 0.74% |
| Other race alone (NH) | 31 | 7 | 0.51% |
| Multiracial (NH) | 260 | 175 | 6.09% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1,358 | 582 | 19.63% |
| Total | 11,205 | 4,924 | 100.00% |
As of the 2000 census, 11,205 people, 1,849 households, and 1,791 families were living on the base. The population density was . The 1,936 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the base was 50.00% White, 36.75% African American, 0.72% Native American, 1.91% Asian, 0.41% Pacific Islander, 6.75% from other races, and 3.45% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 12.12% of the population.
Of the 1,849 households, 81.7% had children under 18 living with them, 88.0% were married couples living together, 7.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 3.1% were not families. About 2.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 0.1% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 3.65 and the average family size was 3.68.
The age distribution was 27.3% under 18, 39.9% from 18 to 24, 31.6% from 25 to 44, 1.1% from 45 to 64, and 0.1% who were 65 or older. The median age was 22 years. For every 100 females, there were 197.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 251.8 males. All these statistics are consistent with Fort Stewart's military status.
The median income for a base household is $30,441, and for a family was $29,507. Males had a median income of $18,514 versus $17,250 for females. The per capita income for the base was $11,594. About 9.7% of families and 11.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.0% of those under 18 and none of those 65 or over.
The DoDEA operates these elementary schools on-post:
Students at the secondary level attend public schools operated by county school districts. Liberty County School District operates the public schools in Liberty County. - This is from a .mil website.
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