Today
Among Fort Bliss' missions:
- Provide anti-aircraft and missile defense capabilities.
- Conduct live fire exercises of nearly every type of Army weapon.
- Host joint military exercises with other U.S. and foreign units,
- Be home to many maintenance crews and supply units.
- Be one of the Army's premier bases for test-driving tanks and other equipment.
- House thousands of military vehicles, including all the equipment needed to set up Patriot missile sites.
- Hosted the USAADCEN Air Defense Artillery Center from 1942-2010. USAADCEN has completed its transfer to Fort Sill. Concomitantly, the German Air Force Air Defense school is going to move to new training facilities in Germany and Greece.
- Monitor missile launches conducted by White Sands Missile Range, located 70 miles (110 km) to the north, in New Mexico.
Training missions are supported by the McGregor Range Complex, located some 25 miles (40 km) to the northeast of the main post, in New Mexico. Most of Fort Bliss lies in the state of New Mexico, stretching northeastward along U.S. Route 54 from El Paso County, Texas to the southern boundary of the Lincoln National Forest in Otero County, New Mexico; in addition, much of the northwestward side of Highway 54 is part of the Fort Bliss Military Reservation, ranging from the northern side of Chaparral, New Mexico to the southern boundary of White Sands Missile Range; the main facilities are within the city limits of El Paso, Texas. According to the city zoning map, the post officially resides in Central El Paso.
Museum Display
Nike Ajax
MIM-14 Nike-Hercules
MIM-23 Hawk
MIM-104 Patriot
Spartan (missile)
Sprint (missile)
Sherman Tank
M163 Vulcan
Skysweeper
M42 Duster
German 88
V-2
Fort Bliss K-12 Schools
Bliss Elementary
Logan Elementary
Milam Elementary
Colin Powell Elementary
Chapin High
Separate from the main post are the William Beaumont Army Medical Center (which also serves the warrior transition battalion for the post's wounded warriors) and a Veterans Administration center at the eastern base of the Franklin Mountains. All of these supporting missions serve the military and retired-military population here, including having served General Omar N. Bradley in his last days. A new warrior transition complex, located at Marshall and Cassidy roads, was opened in June 2011 to replace the older facility serving the warrior transition battalion.
The installation is also close to the El Paso Airport (with easy access from the post via Robert E. Lee Road), Highway 54, and Interstate 10. There is a replica of the original Fort Bliss on the post simulating the adobe style of construction. Other items of interest include the Buffalo Soldier memorial statue on Robert E. Lee Road, and a missile museum on Pleasanton Road.
The walls of the old Fort Bliss Officers Club contains adobe bricks that are more than a century old. The building now houses a Family Readiness Group.
Read more about this topic: Fort Bliss
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