Fort Bliss Preferred Site for Security Forces Training

The Air Force leadership selected Fort Bliss, Tex., as the preferred site for the Security Forces Ground Combat Training Center that the service intends to establish as part of the consolidation of its stateside security forces training, according to a service headquarters release. The leadership identified Camp Guernsey, Wyo., as the reasonable alternative. “The selection of Fort Bliss as the preferred alternative is the result of a deliberate, enterprise-wide assessment,” said Timothy Bridges, the Air Force’s deputy assistant secretary for installations. The final basing decision will come after completion of the environmental impact studies, which is currently scheduled for this summer, states the June 27 release. Fort Bliss would host a training center that accommodates approximately 8,500 students per year, according to the release. Regional training locations at Creech AFB, Nev.; Fort Wolters, Tex.; JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.; and Eglin AFB, Fla., are slated to close, with training at these locations expected to transfer to Fort Bliss no later than October 2014, states the release. In December 2011, the Air Force announced that Camp Guernsey and Fort Bliss, along with McGuire and JB San Antonio, Tex., were the candidate sites to host the new training center.