Fort Bliss
Fort Bliss is the name of a US Army site in El Paso , Texas . The base was named after William Wallace Smith Bliss , who is now buried in the Fort Bliss National Cemetery within the barracks grounds. Fort Bliss is after the end of the use of Holloman Air Force Base (about 150 kilometers north, in New Mexico) the largest foreign base of the German Air Force .
Barracks area
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The actual barracks area is partly in the urban area of El Paso and currently mainly houses training facilities for the anti-aircraft, artillery and anti-aircraft missile units of the US Army (6th Air Defense Brigade).
The nearby large-scale training area in the northeast and east serves as a maneuvering area for the units stationed at Fort Bliss. The White Sands Missile Range test and firing range adjoins the barracks to the north , where weapons tests and sniping with anti-aircraft and artillery missiles take place. Fort Bliss also includes the military training areas , "McGregor Range" and "Dona Ana Range", which as far as New Mexico extend and serve as a missile test site and maneuver areas. With a total area of around 4,532 km² - slightly larger than the Ruhr area - Fort Bliss has the largest training area of the US Army with around 4,015 km² training area.
Stationed associations
Due to the current reform of the US Army, Fort Bliss is currently being massively expanded as a military base. The number of troops stationed there will have increased from 13,742 to 39,569 in 2012.
US Army associations
The following major US Army units are currently stationed in Fort Bliss:
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1st US Armored Division (1st Armored Division)
- 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT)
- 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT)
- 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT)
- 4th Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT)
- Combat Aviation Brigade
- 212th Fires Brigade (Artillery Brigade)
- 15th Sustainment Brigade (Logistics Brigade)
- 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command
- 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade
The following units will be set up in Fort Bliss by the end of 2011:
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1st US Armored Division
- 5th Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT)
German troop contingent
From 1966 to 2013, Fort Bliss was home to the German Air Force Command USA / Canada (DtLwKdoUSCA) as well as the Tactical Training Center FlaRakLw USA of the German Armed Forces , where German Air Force soldiers were trained on the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system. In addition to the Air Force Command, the German Special Forces Command also used the training opportunities available there for missions in desert areas.
On February 16, 2012, Federal Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière announced that training on the Patriot missile defense system would move to Husum in Schleswig-Holstein . The tactical training and further training center for anti-aircraft missiles was disbanded in advance and placed under the FlaRak squadron in Husum as a training center.
Sharp missile tests have been taking place on the Greek island of Crete since 2012 . The German Air Force Command, which coordinates the training of Bundeswehr pilots in North America, was disbanded on September 30, 2013.
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German Air Force Command USA / Canada (DtLwKdo USCA)
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Tactical training center for anti-aircraft missiles of the Air Force USA (TaktAusbWbZ FlaRakLw USA)
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history
In Fort Bliss, after the end of the Second World War in Europe, as part of Operation Overcast (later Project Paperclip), German technicians and scientists, including Wernher von Braun , Konrad Dannenberg , Kurt Debus and Ernst Stuhlinger , were responsible for the development of American missiles, alongside captured military equipment drawn together.
Individual evidence
Web links
- US Army Garrison Fort Bliss website
- TaktAusbWbZ FlaRakLw USA on www.Luftwaffe.de
Coordinates: 31 ° 48 ′ 6 " N , 106 ° 25 ′ 28" W.