[4] The site of Fort Sill was staked out on January 8, 1869,[5] by Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, who led a campaign into Indian Territory to stop tribes from raiding border settlements in Texas and Kansas.

Sheridan later named it in honor of his West Point classmate and friend, Brigadier General Joshua W. Sill, who was killed during the American Civil War.

Soon after Sherman arrived at Fort Sill, the Indian Agent brought several Kiowa chiefs to tell their story about attacking the wagon train.

Supporters of the Quaker peace policy convinced Governor Edmund J. Davis to commute the Indians' sentences to life imprisonment.

The war continued throughout the fall of 1874, but increasing numbers of Indians were forced to give up and head for Fort Sill to enter the reservation system.

Quanah Parker and his Kwahadi Comanches were the last to abandon the struggle, and their arrival at Fort Sill in June 1875 marked the end of Indian warfare on the South Plains.

In 1877, the first African-American to graduate from West Point, Henry O. Flipper, was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, the famous Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Sill.

At one point in the 1880s, the post was nearly deserted when gold was rumored to have been found in the nearby Wichita Mountains, and officers and soldiers alike rushed to stake claims.

In 1894, Geronimo and 341 other Chiricahua Apache prisoners of war were brought to Fort Sill, where they lived in villages scattered around the post.

Once, after visiting the off-post home of chief Quanah Parker, Geronimo decided to escape to his homeland in Arizona late one night rather than return to Fort Sill.

The decline in Indigenous military resistance during this time shifted the mission of Fort Sill from cavalry to field artillery.

During the 1890s, the post declined in importance and was considered for closure, with the land being given to the Chiricahua Apaches; the first artillery battery arrived at Fort Sill in 1902, and the last cavalry regiment departed in May 1907.

During World War I, Montgomery M. Macomb, a brigadier general and career artillery officer who had retired in 1916, was recalled to active duty to command Fort Sill and oversee the schools and training programs that prepared soldiers for combat in France.

According to the Lawton Constitution newspaper article, there was a large crowd of civilians at the field to see the aircraft in flight – and were, consequently, there to see the results of the accident.

They flew six planes to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, a total of 439 miles (706.5 km) in a cross-country distance flight.

They transferred to Casas Grandes in Mexico and began duties flying reconnaissance, delivering mail and dispatches, and transporting senior officers, all marked with a red five-pointed star on their rudders for their American national insignia from March 19, 1916, onwards.

On April 20, 1916, the Army ordered the squadron back to Columbus, N.M. Their only real military success was finding a lost and thirsty cavalry column.

The 1st Aero Squadron received new airplanes, but the factory hurriedly packed them, all missing parts and requiring significant modifications.

The unique "cross" on the side of the building has no religious significance—it is part of an air circulation system designed to dry balloon fabric and parachutes.

In those years for the pentathlon, the competitors completed five events on consecutive days (horse riding, fencing, pistol shooting, a 200-meter freestyle swim and a 3 kilometer cross-country run).

Mayo retired in 1956 as a brigadier general[19] Lieutenant Edwin Argo LOS ANGELES, August 11, 1932 – Three U.S. Army equestrian team members – Maj. Harry Chamberlin, Capt.

What was originally a five-week course was expanded, and special primary flight schools for prospective field artillery pilots were set up at Pittsburg, Kansas, and Denton, Texas.

In 1942, Fort Sill held approximately 700 Japanese Americans interned by the Department of Justice – mostly non-citizen Issei who had been arrested as spies and fifth columnists, despite a lack of evidence supporting the charges against them.

[22] Advancements in air defense artillery and radar systems during the Cold War made the slow-moving Grasshoppers and Bird Dogs easy targets – especially in forward areas.

The AGF Air Training School was transferred to Fort Rucker in 1954, but Post Field still had several helicopter units that called it home.

The rockets converted a transport aircraft, an easy target in most combat situations, into a sophisticated flying weapon capable of direct or indirect fire.

The U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery Museum is housed in temporary facilities, having moved from Fort Bliss, TX in 2010.

In 1984 Towanna Spivey, an archeologist and curator of the Fort Sill National Landmark and Museum, completed a scientific investigation of records and the site.

A detachment of the United States Marine Corps, consisting of a firing battery and commanded by a colonel, is stationed at Fort Sill.

[30] On July 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced cancellation of preparations due to public criticism from local communities and a decline in the number of referrals of undocumented youth.