Camp Rudder
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Camp James E. Rudder (Camp Rudder) is host to the third and final phase of a nine-week training course, dubbed the "swamp phase", of the
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
Ranger School The Ranger School is a 62-day United States Army small unit tactics and leadership course that develops functional skills directly related to units whose mission is to engage the enemy in close combat and direct fire battles. Ranger training w ...
. The camp is located on the
Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso, Florida, Valparaiso in Okaloosa County, Florida, Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test ...
reservation, co-located with Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #6 / Biancur Field, approximately fourteen miles northwest of the main Eglin AFB airfield. The Florida Ranger Camp was established November 15, 1951, by then Major Arthur "Bull" Simons who was named the Commander of the Amphibious/Jungle Training Committee at Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #7 / Epler Field, which was the initial location of the camp. Colonel Simons was later the commander of the prisoner of war rescue attempt on
Son Tay A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current ...
, North Vietnam. The Florida Ranger Camp remained at Field Seven for 20 years until it was moved to Field Six in January 1970. The current Camp Rudder was named for Major General James E. Rudder, USA in June 1974. MG Rudder commanded the
2nd Ranger Battalion The 2nd Ranger Battalion, currently based at Joint Base Lewis–McChord south of Seattle, Washington, United States, is one of three ranger battalions belonging to the United States Army's 75th Ranger Regiment. History World War II Formation ...
when it scaled the cliffs at
Pointe du Hoc La Pointe du Hoc () is a promontory with a cliff overlooking the English Channel on the northwestern coast of Normandy in the Calvados '' department'', France. In World War II, Pointe du Hoc was the location of a series of German bunkers and ma ...
, France, during the 1944
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
Normandy invasion.


History

Biancur Field, Eglin Auxiliary Field #6, was named for 1st Lieutenant Andrew Biancur, USAAF, a test pilot of the Medium Bombardment Section of the 1st Proving Ground Group, killed in crash of a prototype YP-61-NO Black Widow, AAF Ser. No. ''41-18883'', c/n 711, on 8 January 1944 at
Eglin Field Eglin may refer to: * Eglin (surname) * Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso, Florida, Valparaiso in Okaloosa County, Flor ...
. Biancur Field, as Eglin AFB Aux Field #6, remains the airfield portion of Camp Rudder and was previously used by the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
's
Training Squadron 4 The VT-4 (), also known as the MBT-3000, is a Chinese modernized main battle tank built by Norinco for overseas export. Development During the development of Type 90-II/Al-Khalid (also known as MBT-2000) in the 1980s, the gearbox and engin ...
(TRARON 4 or
VT-4 The VT-4 (), also known as the MBT-3000, is a Chinese List of main battle tanks by generation#Modernized, modernized main battle tank built by Norinco for overseas export. Development During the development of Al-Khalid tank, Type 90-II/Al-K ...
) at nearby
Naval Air Station Pensacola Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola (formerly NAS/KNAS until changed circa 1970 to allow Nassau International Airport, now Lynden Pindling International Airport, to have IATA code NAS), "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United Sta ...
in the early 1960s for strike pilot training. The squadron aircraft were T2J Buckeyes and Biancur was used for Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP)
touch-and-go landing In aviation, a touch-and-go landing (TGL) or circuit and bump is a maneuver that is common when learning to fly a fixed-wing aircraft. It involves landing on a runway and takeoff, taking off again without coming to a full stop. Usually the pilot ...
s before student pilots were allowed to land on board the training carrier of the period, the USS ''Antietam'' (CV-36). Meals for the sailors on TAD (Temporary Assigned Duty) at Biancur were supplied by the U.S. Army Rangers at Field 7. With the advent of the more advanced T-2C Buckeye and TA-4J Skyhawk II and the retirement of Antietam to be replaced by the aircraft carrier USS ''Lexington'' (CVT-16 / AVT-16), VT-4 shifted FCLP operations to
Naval Outlying Landing Field Choctaw Naval Outlying Landing Field Choctaw is the United States Navy's designation for an auxiliary airfield that was originally constructed during World War II as Eglin Field (now Eglin Air Force Base) Auxiliary Field # 10. It is located 16.6 miles n ...
(NOLF Choctaw), a Navy airfield formerly known as Eglin AFB Auxiliary Field #10, to the west of Camp Rudder. With the Navy's departure, all Biancur Field operations passed over to the Army. Over the years, twenty-four Army Ranger students have died while in training at Camp Rudder, including four who died in a 1955 training accident, two Ranger students who died of hypothermia in January 1977, and another four who died of exposure during cold-weather flooding in February 1995. The 1995 accident was blamed on several factors, including a sudden rise in the water level on Boiling Creek coupled with other unexpected weather changes, such as fog that delayed rescue efforts. Since 1995, more sophisticated measures have been put into place that cast an elaborate, yet invisible, safety net around the students. As students plan ambushes and negotiate swamps, field ambulances are posted minutes away. Evacuation helicopters and rescue boats are on standby and are constantly advised of changing conditions. Before students enter the water, divers check out conditions. An elaborate system to monitor weather and water conditions and depths exists at every step in the exercise. Training remains tough for the men and women who aspire to be the Army's most elite warriors. The Army has also placed more emphasis on protecting Rangers during training. Camp officials say that with lessons learned from a training accident in 1995, and more resources thanks to allocations from the U.S. Congress, the danger of training casualties has been greatly reduced.


References

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External links


CGlobalSecurity.org
Buildings and structures in Okaloosa County, Florida Training installations of the United States Army