Red River Army Depot

Spreading over 73 square km, Red River Army Depot is located in the Bowie County of Texas. It is among the insecure military bases in the United States of America. No other base was scheduled for closure two times and still alive. The first BRAC (Base Realignment And Closure) commission that targeted the depot was in 1995. However, before the decision to be taken, the commission members changed their minds regarding the facility. 10 years later, in 2005, a second BRAC commission scheduled the depot for closure. With all these, it managed to stay alive in order to support the upcoming army operations. It represents one of the most important single employers in Texas and this was one of the factors that helped it survive. These days, the place is adjacent to a close plant – Lone Star Army Ammunition. It is operated by the US Army and functions in a tight cooperation with the surrounding communities, such as Maud, Hooks or New Boston.

Mission

Red River Army Depot is responsible for supporting all the military actions taken by the United States of America by certifying specific categories of missiles. At the same time, it is also supporting maintenance operations at a depot level. The on site facilities are used to refurbish and repair the extremely expensive Bradley Fighting Vehicles, not to mention about a wide variety of rocket systems. Weighing close to 30 tons, the Bradley Fighting Vehicles are among the most popular tanks used by the US Army since 1981. The refurbishment costs are insignificant and turn this military base into an extremely advantageous partner. Aside from these tanks, the depot can manufacture and repair tank parts as well. The missile certification service works with Patriot and Hawk missiles. They are also recertified when stored for unusually long periods of time. However, the recertification process is not as useful lately with the popular conflicts the United States of America are involved in. The recertification directorate has a second office in Weilerbach, in the western side of Germany. It has the same mission and objectives when it comes to Patriot missiles, just that it operates in Europe.

Units

Believe it or not, in order to fulfill its mission, Red River Army Depot relies on 9 military personnel only. It is among the depots with the lowest number of employees. 8 of these people are active military officers. The other employee is an enlisted member. From all those 8 units, 2 of them are tenant. The place also hosts their families, totaling 24 members. The entire facility hosts more people though, including more than 5500 retired officers, over 1500 civilian employees and around 1000 tenants.

History

The construction for Red River Army Depot was approved in 1941. However, the ammunition storage site was not finished by the time the USA joined World War II. The base mission was only to repair tanks. The objectives remained unchanged over the decades. By Operation Desert Storm, the place also started to operate missile missions.