The land that became Fort Rucker was a wildlife refuge built on worn-out farmland when the War Department commandeered it in 1942. Originally called Ozark Triangular Division Camp, it was renamed Camp Rucker before its doors even opened on May 1. The post initially had quarters for 3,280 officers and 39,461 enlisted personnel. The 81st Infantry Division was the first to train here, departing for the Pacific Theater in March 1943. Three more infantry divisions followed: the 35th, the 98th, and the 66th Panther Division, which shipped out for Europe in October 1944. Camp Rucker also trained Women's Army Corps units and, during the war's final years, housed several hundred German and a few Italian prisoners of war in stockades near the railroad on the post's southern edge. The camp went dormant after the war, reactivated for Korea in 1950, then found its permanent purpose when it became a helicopter training base. It earned the designation 'Fort' in October 1955.

Fort Rucker is home to the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, the institution responsible for training, doctrine, and testing for Army Aviation. The post operates multiple airfields: Cairns Army Airfield handles introductory UH-72 Lakota training, Hanchey Army Heliport runs graduate-level AH-64E Apache courses, and Lowe and Shell Army Heliports host combat and night operations training on UH-60 Black Hawks. The 1st Aviation Brigade and 110th Aviation Brigade manage the training pipeline, while the Air Force's 23rd Flying Training Squadron trains its own helicopter pilots here alongside Army students. The post also houses the Warrant Officer Candidate School and Warrant Officer Career College, reflecting the outsized role warrant officers play in Army aviation. Supporting it all are the Lyster Army Health Clinic, the Aeromedical Research Lab, the School of Aviation Medicine, and the Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center.

Few military installations have had their identity contested as visibly as Fort Rucker. Originally named for Confederate Colonel Edmund W. Rucker, the post became a flashpoint in the national debate over Confederate memorials on federal property. The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act created a Naming Commission to address the issue. On April 10, 2023, the post was redesignated Fort Novosel, honoring Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Novosel, a Medal of Honor recipient who flew 2,543 medevac missions in Vietnam and extracted 5,589 wounded personnel. Novosel had given up the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve to serve as an Army warrant officer in Vietnam. Then, in June 2025, an executive order redesignated the post Fort Rucker once more, this time honoring Captain Edward W. Rucker, a World War I aviator. The base has carried three official names in the span of roughly two years.

Southeast Alabama's tornado alley has tested Fort Rucker more than once. On January 13, 1972, an F2 tornado struck the post, damaging buildings and helicopters and devastating two nearby trailer parks. Four people were killed and 88 injured, all Army dependents. Nearly two years later, on December 29, 1973, an F3 tornado hit the post and the nearby Enterprise area. The very next day, a second F3 tornado heavily damaged 30 government and residential buildings on base, destroying five of them and injuring 23 people. The post rebuilt each time. Today, Fort Rucker sits at the center of a community that includes the bordering cities of Daleville, Ozark, and Enterprise, with a census-designated population of 4,636 as of 2010. The gates that once stood open to civilian traffic closed permanently after September 11, 2001.