The moment Fort Benning and the Chattahoochee Valley fell in love

I spent my first 10 years in the US Army at Fort Benning. Fort Benning was a very different place to live when I returned to finish my Army career here. When I first reported to Fort Benning in 1987, I absolutely hated it! During my first few years at Fort Benning, I wanted the Army to move me anywhere but here. Ten years later, I didn’t want to leave. Something changed during those 10 years. That change made the Chattahoochee Valley a great place for warriors to live.

I don’t know the exact date, but life became better for soldiers stationed at Fort Benning during fall 1990. I watched the relationship between Columbus/Phenix City and Fort Benning change almost overnight. I believe this is the moment when Fort Benning and the Chattahoochee Valley fell in love with each other. Of course, I’m referring to the impact that Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm had on the relationship between Fort Benning and the community.

This was a very challenging moment for everyone in our community. When Fort Benning almost sent most of her warriors to the Persian Gulf, many military families decided to move back to their home towns, not knowing when the war would end. Fort Benning became a ghost town, and our community felt the economic impact. I remember driving home at the end of the duty day with almost no cars on Interstate 185 during the Gulf War. It may be hard for you to imagine, but think about Interstate 185 like the deserted roads on the popular television show “The Walking Dead” during this time.

It wasn’t just I-185; businesses struggled to make ends meet. Hotels were vacant. Gas stations struggled to pay the bills. Restaurants were empty during the evening rush. Many business owners in the Chattahoochee Valley struggled to make payroll during the Gulf War. The attitude about Fort Benning changed overnight during this period. People in the community started to show appreciation to warriors from Fort Benning in ways that I never experienced before Desert Storm. I thought this was a brief moment of patriotism.

I assumed that this was just a phase that Columbus and Phenix City residents were going through. I now realize that this war formed a deep relationship between Fort Benning and the surrounding community. Things never went back to the way they were before Desert Storm. The relationship continued to grow stronger between Fort Benning and the surrounding community.

Looking back, I believe this is also the moment that I started to fall in love with the Chattahoochee Valley. The people of our community made me decide that I wanted to spend the rest of my life here. I think a mutual respect for each other developed during the Gulf War. I believe that Desert Storm forged a relationship with the Chattahoochee Valley that has made Fort Benning the greatest military community in the world.

If you don’t believe me, go back and look at the records. Immediately after the Gulf War, Fort Benning was repeatedly recognized as the greatest large military installation in the world. I believe it’s the people of the Chattahoochee Valley that caused Fort Benning to become recognized as the greatest place in the military to live. Desert Storm changed people’s hearts toward the military in the Chattahoochee Valley. During that same time, the people of the Chattahoochee Valley changed my heart. This caused me to fall in love with this community- and never want to leave it.

Jeff Struecker is pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Columbus and a former U.S. Army Ranger who was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame in 2017.

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 7:44 PM.