FORT DRUM, N.Y. -- Fort Drum officials renamed the installation's Range Operations Center in honor of Maj. Gen. Lloyd E. Jones during a memorialization ceremony Friday at the facility.
During the event, Brig. Gen. Carl A. Alex, 10th Mountain Division (LI) deputy commanding general of support, and Col. Gary A. Rosenberg, Fort Drum garrison commander, unveiled a plaque memorializing Jones's service that will be affixed to the Maj. Gen. Lloyd E. Jones Range Operations Center.
Jones, who was born in 1889, enlisted in the Army shortly after graduating from the University of Missouri in 1911.
His service included a position as a professor of military science and tactics at the University of Montana; an assignment in the Philippines as a military instructor during World War I; a command in 76th Field Artillery; the position of chief of field artillery in Washington, D.C.; during World War II, the commands of the Occupational Forces of Amchitka and Aleutians Islands, Alaska, and as the first commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale, Colo., in 1943.
The 10th Mountain Division was constituted without any Army doctrine on mountain training. Jones began the legacy of mountain readiness by sending Soldiers to Elkin, W.Va., to return as rock climbing instructors, who became a part of the Mountain Training Group. The division also trained at Camp Swift, Texas, where Soldiers built their endurance by marching 25 miles in eight hours every week. This combination of mountain and light infantry training happened under Jones's command.
James Moore, Fort Drum's range operations safety officer, attended the event.
"It is fitting that they dedicated the building to him," Moore said. "The Range Operations Center manages all training on Fort Drum, and he was all about training."
The Range Operations Center staff coordinates more than 55 live-fire ranges including two indoor small-arms ranges, the O'Brien Readiness Training Center, and all field training exercises conducted on Fort Drum.
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