Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in the U.S. states of New Mexico and Texas. With an area of about 1,700 square miles (4,400 km2), it is the Army's second-largest installation, behind the adjacent White Sands Missile Range. It is FORSCOM's (United States Army Forces Command) largest installation, and has the Army's largest Maneuver Area (992,000 acres) behind the National Training Center. Part of the post in El Paso County, Texas, is a census-designated place (CDP); it had a population of 8,591 at the 2010 census. Fort Bliss provides the largest contiguous tract (1,500 sq mi, 3,900 km2) of virtually unrestricted airspace in the Continental United States. The airspace is used for missile and artillery training and testing .
Fort Bliss is home to the 1st Armored Division, which returned to US soil in 2011, after 40 years in Germany. The division is supported by the 15th Sustainment Brigade. The installation is also home to the 32nd Army Air & Missile Defense Command, the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, the 212th Fires Brigade, and the 402nd Field Artillery Brigade.
The headquarters for the El Paso Intelligence Center, a federal tactical operational intelligence center, is hosted at Fort Bliss. Its DoD (United States Department of Defense) counterpart, Joint Task Force North, is at Biggs Army Airfield. Biggs Field, a military airport located at Fort Bliss, is designated a military power projection platform.
Fort Bliss National Cemetery is located on the post. The fort is named for Mexican-American War soldier William Wallace Smith Bliss.
Read more about Fort Bliss: History, Today, Local Impact of Fort Bliss, Geography, Demographics
Famous quotes containing the words fort and/or bliss:
“You have created a monster and it will destroy you.”
—Garrett Fort (1900–1945)
“Frau Stöhr ... began to talk about how fascinating it was to cough.... Sneezing was much the same thing. You kept on wanting to sneeze until you simply couldn’t stand it any longer; you looked as if you were tipsy; you drew a couple of breaths, then out it came, and you forgot everything else in the bliss of the sensation. Sometimes the explosion repeated itself two or three times. That was the sort of pleasure life gave you free of charge.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)