We have now moved onto Colorado Springs where the temperature is scheduled to drop to 20 degrees Farenheit tonight (minus six Centigrade)! Brrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

Down the road from us is Fort Carson, an American Army base which was first established in 1942, following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour. The city of Colorado Springs purchased land south of the city and donated it to the War Department to enable the base to be built.

During World War II, over 100,000 soldiers trained at Fort Carson and more than 100 units were transferred to the mountain post from other installations. Starting in 1943, it was also home to nearly 9,000 prisoners of war – mainly Italians and Germans. The POWs helped to alleviate the manpower shortage in Colorado by doing general farm work such as canning tomatoes, cutting corn and aiding in logging operations on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Today, Fort Carson covers 137,000 acres and has a military population of over 21,000 soldiers who are served by nearly 5,000 civilian employees. There is an additional training area located approximately 150 miles to the southeast of base which is used for large force-on-force maneuver training.

Colin Powell, a retired four-star General, who became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and US Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, served as Assistant Division Commander of the 4^th Infantry Division at Fort Carson in the early 1980s.

 

The beautiful scenery around Fort Carson has made it one of the most requested duty stations in the US Army. In 2007, it adopted “Best Hometown in the Army” as its motto!