Camping and hiking opportunities in El Paso abound including Franklin Mountains State Park. Hueco Tanks is a historic site featuring ancient cave paintings, rock climbing, and self-guided tours of the area.
Patriot missiles played a vital role in the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm.Īfter the 9/11 attacks, Fort Bliss, El Paso was an important deployment center and served as a training base for Afghanistan security forces. That was also the era Fort Bliss became the home of the Army’s Patriot Missile program. There was some back-and-forth with Ranger School desert training operations the facility would be transferred to a Utah facility for a few years before returning to Fort Bliss until the Army Ranger Desert training portion was discontinued in the mid 1990s. In the 1980s, the installation was the place troops attending Army Ranger School would receive desert warfare training. In 1957, the Army Air Defense Center opened at the installation, which included operations such as Army Air Defense School, 6th Artillery Group, and 61st Ordnance Group. The installation was responsible for training thousands of soldiers in anti-aircraft operations, air defense, and related areas. With the Cold War’s emphasis on missile defense, Fort Bliss became more and more important. It was home to the 15th Cavalry Brigade during the Mexican Revolution, and during World War Two the installation’s mission included anti-aircraft battalion training (including the use of target drones) and later served as a POW / internment camp for Japanese, German, and Italian Americans who were at the time thought to be potential threats to the war effort.Īfter World War Two, a group of rocket scientists came to Fort Bliss to work on V-2 test launches, and there was also development work on something known as the Hermes B2 ramjet but that was later cancelled. At the time the installation was known only as “the post opposite El Paso) until 1854 when it was re-named Fort Bliss. Named after LTC William Bliss (the son-in-law of President Zachary Taylor), the first troops stationed there belonged to the 3rd Infantry Regiment. 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division.
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division.Units and missions at Fort Bliss include, but are not limited to: Fort Bliss is also the location of the El Paso Intelligence Center, which is a federally operated tactical intelligence center.
It’s second in size Army-wide only to White Sands Missile Range and is known for artillery testing, missile firing, and the 1st Armored Division calls Fort Bliss home after relocating back to the United States from a 40 year presence in Germany. The Fort Bliss Training center is part of the largest Department of Defense “controlled airspace” in the world according to the official site.įort Bliss, El Paso boasts more than 50 training areas, 58 live-fire ranges, nearly two thousand tank trails, and a variety of training missions.įind information about Fort Bliss including the main commercial and DSN numbers for the base, information on basic services, base transportation, lodging for TDY and PSCing personnel, and inprocessing.įort Bliss is the largest Army installation in United States Army Forces Command, also known as FORSCOM. El Paso, Texas is home to Fort Bliss, which includes more than a million acres of land across Texas and New Mexico.
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