The Army runs boot camp at four installations: Fort Jackson in South Carolina, Fort Moore in Georgia, Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, and Fort Sill in Oklahoma.1United States Military Entrance Processing Command. Basic Training Centers Contact Information Every enlisted recruit in the Active Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard reports to one of these four posts.2U.S. Army. Basic Combat Training Which one you go to is decided by the job you sign for, not by preference or geography.
Fort Jackson, South Carolina
Fort Jackson is the Army’s largest Basic Combat Training center. It produces roughly half of all soldiers entering the Army each year and trains more than 60 percent of the women who enlist. The post processes over 45,000 basic training soldiers annually, plus another 12,000 in advanced courses.3U.S. Army Fort Jackson. Home
If your Military Occupational Specialty doesn’t have its own dedicated training pipeline at one of the other three posts, this is almost certainly where you’re headed. Most support and non-combat specialties come through Fort Jackson for the standard 10-week course, then ship to a separate installation for Advanced Individual Training.
Fort Moore, Georgia
Fort Moore, renamed from Fort Benning in 2023, is the training home for the Army’s Infantry and Armor pipelines. Recruits with contracts for 11B (Infantryman), 11C (Indirect Fire Infantryman), or 19K (Armor Crewmember) go here and stay here through graduation.
Fort Moore runs One Station Unit Training rather than splitting basic and advanced instruction across two posts. Infantry OSUT runs approximately 22 weeks. Armor OSUT runs approximately 18 weeks. You arrive as a civilian and leave as a qualified infantryman or armor crewmember from the same installation.
Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri
Fort Leonard Wood handles training for three specialty tracks: Combat Engineers, Military Police, and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) soldiers.4U.S. Army Fort Leonard Wood. Military Police Training Phases Like Fort Moore, these are OSUT programs, so recruits complete basic and job training at the same post.
The installation sits in the Ozark Mountains. Expect wooded, hilly terrain during field exercises.
Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Fort Sill is the Army’s Fires Center of Excellence. Recruits headed for Field Artillery or Air Defense Artillery specialties complete their training here. The flat, open Oklahoma landscape fits the long-range gunnery and fire-direction work that artillery soldiers do.
How the Army Decides Which Post You Go To
The assignment follows your Military Occupational Specialty. An infantry recruit goes to Fort Moore. A military police recruit goes to Fort Leonard Wood. A field artillery recruit goes to Fort Sill. Anyone whose MOS lacks an OSUT pipeline tied to one of those three posts is generally assigned to Fort Jackson for standard 10-week BCT.
The paperwork gets finalized at a Military Entrance Processing Station. After the physical exam, ASVAB score review, and contract signing, MEPS schedules your ship date and assigns your training location based on your MOS. You don’t choose the post. Requesting a transfer to be closer to family isn’t an option. The Army sends recruits where the job is taught.
That means the practical way to influence where you’ll spend basic is at the contract stage, when you and your recruiter select an MOS. Once the contract is signed, the location is set.
BCT vs. OSUT: Why the Location Also Determines the Length
The four posts don’t all run the same course, and that’s the part recruits often miss when they read the list of locations.
Standard Basic Combat Training runs 10 weeks and covers the fundamentals every soldier needs: physical fitness, rifle marksmanship, land navigation, first aid, and Army values.2U.S. Army. Basic Combat Training After graduation, soldiers move to a different installation for Advanced Individual Training, where they learn the technical skills for their specific job. AIT length varies with the specialty, from a few weeks for simpler roles to many months for highly technical ones. Fort Jackson runs on this model.
One Station Unit Training combines basic soldier skills and job-specific training into one continuous course at one installation. Fort Moore, Fort Leonard Wood, and Fort Sill all use OSUT for their signature specialties. There’s no move between posts partway through. You stay with the same unit and the same cadre from arrival through graduation.
The tradeoff cuts both ways. OSUT builds cohesion because the group that starts together also finishes together. It’s also a longer continuous stretch of high-intensity training with no real break in the middle. Standard BCT is shorter, but it comes with a permanent change of station to a new post and often a new set of instructors for AIT.
Reserve and National Guard Recruits
Reserve and National Guard recruits attend the same basic training as active-duty soldiers at the same four installations.2U.S. Army. Basic Combat Training The course content, the length, and the assignment rules are identical. The difference is what happens after AIT or OSUT: active-duty soldiers report to their first duty station, while Reserve and Guard soldiers return home to drill with their unit.
Quick Reference: Posts and Specialties
- Fort Jackson, South Carolina — Standard 10-week BCT for most support and non-combat MOSs; largest training center; trains the majority of enlisting women.
- Fort Moore, Georgia — OSUT for Infantry (11B, 11C) and Armor (19K); approximately 22 weeks for Infantry and 18 weeks for Armor.
- Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri — OSUT for Combat Engineers, Military Police, and CBRN specialists.
- Fort Sill, Oklahoma — Training for Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery; home of the Fires Center of Excellence.
If you want to know which post you’ll ship to, look at the MOS on your enlistment contract and match it to the list above. That single line on the paperwork determines everything about where you’ll spend the next several months.