Fort Indiantown Gap has been listed among the nation’s busiest National Guard training centers in fiscal year 2024.
During the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, Fort Indiantown Gap hosted 132,150 personnel for a total of 804,714 man-days, making it the second-busiest National Guard training center, according to FTIG spokesman Brad Rhen.
“From range operations to logistics to billeting, our employees go above and beyond every day to ensure Fort Indiantown Gap is one of the premier National Guard training centers in the nation,” said Col. Kevin Potts, garrison commander. “While we might not have been the busiest training center last year, when it comes to the variety of training we offer and the customer service we provide, Fort Indiantown Gap is second to none.”
Fort Indiantown Gap trailed Camp Shelby, Mississippi, which hosted 1,049,711 man-days of training. Camp Ripley, Minnesota, was third with 629,449 man-days.
In fiscal year 2023, Fort Indiantown Gap was the busiest overall training center, hosting 139,391 personnel for a total of 858,523 man-days, Rhen reported. It was also the busiest training center in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2021, and it has been in the top three every year since 2013.
“Although we fell short of being the number one National Guard training center in the nation this year, we were still able to increase our customer base and provide unit commanders a world-class training venue to increase readiness across all services,” said Lt. Col. Gordon Kinneer, director of plans, operations, training and security.
In FY24, 352 units and organizations trained at Fort Indiantown Gap, including 295 military units and 57 non-DoD organizations, such as law-enforcement agencies. According to a release, more than 4.1 million rounds of small-arms ammunition, 7,100 artillery rounds and 6,000 mortar rounds were expended during training.
The 2024 training year also saw many improvements to the installation’s ranges and training areas, Kinneer said in the release.
“Working within the confines of a fiscally constrained environment, we were able to create additional training capabilities that will certainly increase throughput for 2025,” Kinneer said. “Notably, the ability to conduct four concurrent squad live-fire exercises with minimal impact to other facilities, the addition of a new platoon live-fire range, and a multitude of range infrastructure improvements should attract new users to our facility next year.”
Kinneer noted that while Camp Shelby was busier than Fort Indiantown Gap last year, Camp Shelby has over 134,000 acres of land, compared to Fort Indiantown Gap’s 17,000 acres.
“In terms of acreage and number of personnel trained, Fort Indiantown Gap is able to do more with less and punches well above its weight class,” Kinneer said. “With all the hard work our training center staff, range maintenance crews, and range operations team put in this year, I have no doubt that 2025 will bring more success to the installation.”
Fort Indiantown Gap is the primary training site for the Pennsylvania National Guard and regularly hosts personnel from all branches of the military, both active-duty and reserve-component, as well as personnel from foreign militaries, law enforcement agencies and other local, state and federal agencies.
The installation is also home to several schools, including the Eastern Army National Guard Aviation Training Site, the 166th Regiment Regional Training Institute, the Regional Equipment Operators Training Site, the Lightning Force Academy, the Northeast Counter Drug Training Center and the Keystone State ChalleNGe Academy.
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