21 Facts About Fort Bliss

Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas.

Fort Bliss has an area of about 1,700 square miles ; it is the largest installation in FORSCOM and second-largest in the Army overall.

Fort Bliss provides the largest contiguous tract of restricted airspace in the Continental United States, used for missile and artillery training and testing, and at 992,000 acres boasts the largest maneuver area.

Fort Bliss is home to the 1st Armored Division, which returned to US soil in 2011 after 40 years in Germany.

William Beaumont Army Medical Center : WBAMC delivers quality healthcare to Soldiers and beneficiaries at Fort Bliss to sustain a Ready Force; every encounter, every day.

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Biggs Field, a military airport located at Fort Bliss, is designated a military power projection platform.

On New Year's Day, 1878, Fort Bliss was established as a permanent post; the Company L Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth Cavalry and Company C of the 15th Infantry, were sent to Fort Bliss to prevent further trouble over the salt beds and the usage of Rio Grande water for irrigation purposes.

Predominantly a cavalry post since 1912, Fort Bliss acquired three light armored cars, eight medium armored cars, two motorcycles, and two trucks on 8 November 1928.

On 3 August 1944, the Anti-Aircraft Artillery School was ordered from Camp Davis to Fort Bliss to make the training of anti-aircraft gunners easier, and they became the dominant force at Fort Bliss following the departure of the US 1st Cavalry Division.

In late 1953 after troops had been trained at the Ft Fort Bliss Guided Missile School, field-firing operations of the MGM-5 Corporal were underway at Red Canyon Range Camp, WSPG.

Fort Bliss trained thousands of US Soldiers during the Cold War.

Fort Bliss took on the important role of providing a large area for troops to conduct live fire exercises with the missiles.

Fort Bliss was used as the Desert Stage of the Ranger School training course to prepare Ranger School graduates for operations in the deserts of the Middle East.

From 1983 to 1987, Fort Bliss was home to the Ranger School's newly formed 4th Training Company.

Efforts to consolidate units from another post with those units that remained at Fort Bliss were overruled by the Base Realignment and Closing Commission, leaving Fort Bliss without any armored vehicles.

An estimated 15,918 military jobs and 384 civilian jobs were planned to be transferred to Fort Bliss, brought the total number of troops stationed at Fort Bliss under this alignment to a total of 33,500 by 2012.

Fort Bliss has been designated a "No Drone Zone" by the FAA, out to 400 feet beyond the lateral edges of the military reservation.

Fort Bliss is the single largest employer in the area supporting a total of 167,358 people with an estimated annual contribution of approximately 25.

In 2006, Fort Bliss dispatched soldiers and helicopters to the flood-affected areas to help with rescue efforts there.

In 2010, with the assumption of command by Major General Dana J H Pittard, a local that grew up in El Paso, Fort Bliss was made an "open post" which allowed anyone with a valid driver's license to enter the post.

Residents zoned to Bliss Elementary are zoned to Bassett Middle School and Captain John L Chapin High School.