Blazing Skies: Air Defense Artillery on Fort Bliss, 1940-2009

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Blazing Skies: Air Defense Artillery on Fort Bliss, 1940-2009

J. A. Hamilton

Most of the history of the Air Defense Artillary (ADA) branch centers on the Army post of Fort Bliss, Texas. In its relatively brief history, ADA defined the post for the twentieth century, making Fort Bliss what it is today, a premiere facility for training, mobilization and deploying combat forces. Sprawling over more than one million acres, Fort Bliss is the Army's second largest installation (only White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, which is adjacent to Fort Bliss is larger). The location of the post, the weather, the terrain, and the airspace--the largest contiguous tract of virtually unrestricted airspace in the continental United States--combine to make Fort Bliss an ideal place to conduct air and missile defense testing and training. Fort Bliss training ranges, including Dona Ana Range, McGregor Range, Otero Mesa, and Orogrande Range, provide ideal characteristics for long-range weapons that require broad surface danger areas. Thousands of soldiers braved the land navigation challenges, the heat, the Desert Southwest wildlife, and the very long distances between cantonment areas and training ranges as they prepared for warfare in far-flung places.