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

Hamilton, John A

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0160822106 ISBN 13: 9780160822100

Publisher: Defense Department, 2009

Synopsis

This publication provides an authoritative history of the Army Air Defense Artillery Branch on Fort Bliss, Texas.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In September 1940, Fort Bliss, Texas was a far-flung desert post occupied by the 1st Cavalry Division, still mounted on horseback in the modern age. On September 20, a new unit arrived at the plainport railroad siding that would change the post for almost seventy years.
The 202nd Coast Artillery Regiment/antiaircraft was the first of many antiaircraft and Air Defense Artillery units that came to Fort Bliss. The Tularosa Valley north of the post provided almost year around good weather and the land offered vast maneuver and range areas for air defense weapons that needed open air space. The city of El Paso also provided a friendly community for soldiers as well.
Thus began a period of almost seventy years of air defense training on Fort Bliss. Over the years the Air Defense Artillery came to dominate the post until 2005, when the Department of Defense made the decision to move the ADA Center and School to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
This is a brief record of the Air Defense Artillery on Fort Bliss. Its title, Blazing Skies,
Evokes the memory of the dreaded air defense operational readiness evaluation. Thousands OF Air Defense Artillery soldiers lived, trained, and workers in the hot sun of the ranges. This book forms a remembrance of those times.
FIRST TO FIRE!

Edition details

• Publisher: Defense Department
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0160822106
• ISBN 13: 9780160822100
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 387