Harsh El Paso landscape ideal for Middle East deployment training

By |

EL PASO – The Fort Bliss Army Installation in this far west Texas city is considered one of the best possible locations for combat training in the United States because its harsh desert climate and terrain are near perfect simulations of deployment locations in some Middle East countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. Frequent near-blinding dust storms and blazing heat are among the weather conditions prevalent in the area surrounding Fort Bliss as well as in Afghanistan and Iraq where the U.S. currently has 11,000 combat troops. Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion 3rd Brigade Field Artillery (2-3FA) recently participated in air assault training in a desert clearing off Route Grey in Fort Bliss in northeast El Paso. Fort Bliss is the largest installation in the United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM) with an area of about 1,700 square miles. According to facts from Military Installations, there are 27,132 active duty soldiers at Fort Bliss.

African country aided by Fort Bliss unit making progress 1 year after Ebola outbreak

By |

EL PASO — A year after the Ebola epidemic ravaged West Africa the risk of resurgence lingers, but communities continue to make progress toward rebuilding due to brave international humanitarian efforts, including those of soldiers from El Paso. Months after the Ebola outbreak began killing thousands of people in Liberia, more than 250 soldiers from here shuttled the sick by helicopter from isolated villages to Nairobi for treatment at facilities they helped build. The soldiers, primarily from the 501st Aviation Regiment deployed last October from Fort Bliss to participate in “Operation United Assistance” in Liberia. “It was not a combat mission,” said Chief Warrant Officer Landon Dykes. “This was a different scenario, a different role for the entire task-force and our entire purpose was to help the people of Liberia combat Ebola.”

Homeless veterans in El Paso are estimated to be around 200 according to Casa Vida de Salud.

Unable to adjust to civilian life, some Army veterans end up living on the street

By |

EL PASO – Nicolas Charles Damico, a veteran of both of America’s longest wars, shuffles through papers on the kitchen table of the homeless shelter where he lives until he finds the Army patch he promises to live by – “This we’ll defend.”

He does this at the Veterans Transitional Living Center, a shelter for homeless veterans who have the potential to return to normal life soon. “I am now homeless for many reasons. The one benefit I got, I messed up. I used up my G.I. Bill very quickly. I only had 36 months to complete my education.

Afghan women work in sewing factories to make uniforms and blankets for their military. Afghanistan, 2011 (Photo Courtesy of Andrea Salazar)

Picturing the people and ruins of Afghanistan

By |

EL PASO — Afghan women sit one behind another, feeding tan thread into their sewing machines, looking down at their work in concentration, while one gazes through the slit of her Hijab, her dark eyes piercing the camera lens. This was a photo taken by El Paso native Andrea Salazar during her deployment two years ago. Joining the Air Force in 2009, Salazar has captured images from different parts of the world as a combat photographer in the military. “I never thought about joining in high school,” Salazar said. “When I worked at Ft.

The IAV Stryker, the currnt vehicle used for mechanized operations. (Ken Hudnall/Borderzine.com)

Back in the saddle again – Old soldiers never die, they come back as journalists

By |

EL PASO – It was Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now who said “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” For me it is the sound of powerful diesel engines idling, hinting just a promise of the power at your command and diesel fumes filing the air that takes me back to an earlier time when it was my company waiting to move out to the field. I had been a career Infantry Officer until my injury. I took the uniform off long ago, but the feel and the thrill of moving a company of men and vehicles to engage an enemy is a feeling that is never forgotten. So when this assignment came along, I did not have to think long before agreeing to work as an embedded reporter in a military exercise at Fort Bliss, Texas.

It’s not your mom’s military anymore – Women in the service seek a combat role

By |

EL PASO – A military advisory panel recently recommended that the Pentagon do away with a policy that bans women from serving in combat, dismantling the last major area of discrimination in the armed forces. In the past, the U. S. armed forces have had to overcome the barriers of racial prejudice and rules against gays serving openly in the military. The call by the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) to let women serve in the front lines of combat could set in motion another wave of changes in military culture. This newest proposal was sent by the  MLDC to Congress and to President Barak Obama. “It’s not that women aren’t ready – we are ready.