Fort Bliss

Fort Bliss
Fort Bliss
Part of Army Forces Command (FORSCOM)
El Paso County, Texas and Doña Ana / Otero counties, New Mexico, Southwestern United States
	A 1-37AR, 1st Armored Division Abrams tank crew on Fort Bliss' Orogrande Range Camp, 2019
Site information
Type	Military base
Controlled by	United States (1849–1861); Confederate States (1861–1862); United States (1862–present)
Facilities	Biggs Army Airfield; McGregor Range; Doña Ana Range; North Training Area; South Training Area
Location
	Fort Bliss Location of Fort Bliss Fort Bliss Fort Bliss (the United States)
Coordinates	31°48′07″N 106°25′29″W / 31.801847°N 106.424608°W
Site history
Built	1849–1893
In use	1849–present
Garrison information
Current; commander	Major general Curtis D. Taylor
Past; commanders	John J. Pershing
Garrison	1st Armored Division; 15th Sustainment Brigade; 402nd Field Artillery Brigade; 5th Armored Brigade; 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command; 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade; 86th Expeditionary Signal Battalion; Joint Task Force North; ; German Air Force Command USA/CAN; German Air Force Air Defense Center
Occupants	DCG: Maneuver: Brigadier (UK) Richard Bell; Operations: BG Michael J. Simmering; Support: COL Alric L. Francis;

Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Established in 1848, the fort was renamed in 1854 to honor Bvt.Lieut.Colonel William W.S. Bliss (1815–1853), U.S. Army officer, Private Secretary and son-in-law of President Zachary Taylor.

Fort Bliss has an area of about 1,700 square miles (4,400 km²). It is the largest installation in FORSCOM (United States Army Forces Command) and second-largest in the Army overall, the largest being the adjacent White Sands Missile Range. The portion of the post located in El Paso County, Texas, is a census-designated place with a population of 8,591 in the 2010 census. Fort Bliss provides the largest contiguous tract (1,500 sq mi or 3,900 km²) of restricted airspace in the Continental United States, used for missile and artillery training and testing, and at 992,000 acres (401,000 ha) has the largest maneuver area, ahead of the National Training Center, which has 642,000 acres (260,000 ha).

The garrison's land area is 1.12 million acres (0.45×10^⁶ ha), ranging to the boundaries of the Lincoln National Forest and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Fort Bliss includes the Castner Range National Monument.