Fort Bliss provides the largest contiguous tract (1,500 sq mi or 3,900 km2) of restricted airspace[9] in the Continental United States, used for missile and artillery training and testing, and at 992,000 acres (401,000 ha) boasts the largest maneuver area (ahead of the National Training Center, which has 642,000 acres (260,000 ha)).

JTF North supports federal law enforcement agencies in the conduct of counterdrug/counter transnational organized crime operations; it facilitates DoD training in the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) area of responsibility to disrupt transnational criminal organizations and deter their freedom of action in order to protect the homeland and increase DoD unit readiness.

The United States Army Sergeants Major Academy (USASMA) was accredited as a branch campus of the Command and General Staff College (CGSC) in 2018.

O/O, conducts reset and training of Patriot, Avenger Iron Dome, and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) units.

The CONUS Replacement Center: CRC receives, processes, equips, and conducts Theater Specific Individual Requirements Training (TSIRT) for military Non Unit Related Personnel (NRP), Department of Defense (DoD) Civilians, and Non Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (Non LOGCAP) Contactors deploying to and redeploying from theaters of operations in support of overseas contingency operations.

Its DoD (United States Department of Defense) counterpart, Joint Task Force North, is at Biggs Army Airfield.

[18] On 8 September 1849, the garrison party of several companies of the 3rd U.S. Infantry ('The Old Guard', currently the oldest active duty regiment in the US Army), commanded by Major Jefferson Van Horne, found only four small and scattered settlements on the north side of the Rio Grande.

The Post Opposite El Paso del Norte was first established at the site of Coon's Ranch (often erroneously referred to as Smith's Ranch, now downtown El Paso)[17]: 21  and, along with Fort Selden and other Southwestern outposts, protected recently won territory from harassing Apaches and Comanches, provided law and order, and escorted the forty-niners.

[17]: 20–21 On 11 January 1854, Companies B, E, I and K of the 8th Infantry, under the command of Lt. Col. Edmund B. Alexander, established Post of El Paso at Magoffinsville under orders from Secretary of War Jefferson Davis.

[20] At the outbreak of the American Civil War, David E. Twiggs, the Commander of the Department of Texas, ordered the garrison to surrender Fort Bliss to the Confederacy, which Col. Isaac Van Duzen Reeve did on 31 March 1861.

[22] The Confederate garrison abandoned Fort Bliss without a fight the next year when a Federal column of 2,350 men under the command of Colonel James H. Carleton advanced from California.

[17]: 33, 35 After May 1867 Rio Grande flooding seriously damaged the Magoffinsville post, Fort Bliss was moved to a site called 'Camp Concordia' in March 1868.

[17]: 36  Water, heating, and sanitation facilities were at a minimum in the adobe buildings of the fort; records reveal that troops suffered severely from dysentery and malaria and that supplies arrived irregularly over the Santa Fe Trail by wagon train.

The first railroad arrived in 1881, and tracks were laid across the military reservation, thereby solving the supply problems for the fort and the rapidly growing town of El Paso.

By 1890, Hart's Mill had outlived its usefulness, and Congress appropriated $150,000 for construction of a military installation[17]: 50  on the mesa approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) east of El Paso's 1890 city limits.

[23] The present site of Fort Bliss on La Noria mesa,[24][25] was laid out by Captain John Ruhlen from 1891 to 1892 and was first occupied by four companies of the 18th Infantry in October 1893.

In March 1915, under the command of General Frederick Funston, Pershing led the 8th Brigade on the failed 1916–1917 Punitive Expedition into Mexico in search of outlaw Pancho Villa.

[30] During the war, the base was used to hold approximately 91 German, Italian, and Japanese Americans from Hawaii (then a territory), who were arrested as potential fifth columnists but, in most cases, denied due process.

[36] In late 1953 after troops had been trained at the Ft Bliss Guided Missile School, field-firing operations of the MGM-5 Corporal were underway at Red Canyon Range Camp, WSPG.

[17][40] Fort Bliss took on the important role of providing a large area for troops to conduct live fire exercises with the missiles.

While the United States Army Air Defense Artillery School develops doctrine and tactics, training current and future soldiers has always been its core mission.

[41] The arrival of the 11,500 troops from the 1st Armored Division is also expected to create some 20,196 direct and indirect military and civilian jobs in El Paso.

When the BRAC commission recommendations were released Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's spokesman reported that El Paso was the only area that came out with a major gain of forces.

[44] The news that El Paso had been selected to receive major elements of the 1st Armored Division was met with joy, but at the same time many expressed surprise at the panel's recommendation to transfer the Air Defense Artillery School, 6th ADA Brigade, and its accompanying equipment (including the MIM-104 Patriot Missile Anti-Aircraft/Anti Missile defense system) to Fort Sill.

[55] The installation is also close to the El Paso Airport (with easy access from the post via Buffalo Soldier Road),[56] Highway 54, and Interstate 10.

[60] Fort Bliss is the single largest employer in the area supporting a total of 167,358 people with an estimated annual contribution of approximately 25.6 billion.

As of July 2010, electric power consumption at Fort Bliss had been reduced by three megawatts as the base continues to work towards becoming a "net zero" energy installation.

[69] Fort Bliss archaeologists manage 20,000 sites on the 1.12 million acre reservation, and serve as tribal liaison to seven federally-funded Indian tribes.

This five building museum was authentically constructed with adobe bricks and painted stucco, and includes a sutler store, bunkhouse, blacksmith shop, saddlery, and a pottery kiln.

These include important historical artifacts from the founding of Fort Bliss to the present day, such as General Pershing's Dodge Command Car and a Patriot Missile.