Inside the Wire
Alabama: Fort Rucker
Total acres: 58,727 Branch: Army
Alabama is home to 104 sites, the largest of which is Fort Rucker near the city of Enterprise. Dominated by the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, the base is under the command of Maj. Gen. William K. Gayler. The central function of the base is to develop, train, and educate Army aviation professionals.
Alaska: Fort Wainwright
Total acres: 697,475 Branch: Army
The massive Fort Wainwright is the biggest among Alaska’s 160 sites and one of the largest in the entire country. Home to the so-called “Arctic Warriors,” the facility is the home turf of the United States Army Garrison Alaska as well as to units of the United States Army Alaska (USARAK). Among those units are the vaunted 25th Infantry Division and the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team.
Arizona: Barry M. Goldwater Range
Total acres: 1,102,325 Branch: Air Force
Near the city of Gila Bend is the Barry M. Goldwater Range, a live-fire aircraft range close to the U.S. border with Mexico. The proving ground operates nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with Marine Corps and Air Force pilots participating in training and testing missions round the clock. One of 53 bases in Arizona, the site is so enormous that several agencies cooperate in managing it.
Arkansas: Fort Chaffee Joint Maneuver Training Center
Total acres: 65,305 Branch: Army National Guard
Situated near the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Fort Chaffee JMTC is one of only nine National Guard Regional Collective Training Capability sites in the entire country that has the capacity to conduct company-level maneuver and platoon live-fire training. The sprawling complex, one of 26 military sites in Arkansas, provides both live-fire and simulated combat training.
California: Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake
Total acres: 651,739 Branch: Navy
California is teeming with 368 military bases — more than any other state in America — the largest of which is Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, located in the rugged Western Mojave Desert. When included with two neighboring China Lake facilities, the trio combines for more than 1.1 million acres to consume an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. The three massive sites, the largest of which is NAWS China Lake, represent 38 percent of the Navy’s worldwide land holdings and 85 percent of the Navy’s research, development, acquisition, testing and evaluation resources.
Colorado: Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site
Total acres: 235,782 Branch: Army
The largest of Colorado’s 84 military sites is Pinon Canyon near the city of Model. Capable of hosting brigade-level exercises, Pinon Canyon is a training site affiliated with nearby Fort Carson, which covers 134,258 acres.
Connecticut: Naval Submarine Base New London
Total acres: 687 Branch: Navy
None of Connecticut’s 35 military sites are classified as large; just one is classified as medium; and the rest are listed as small. The biggest of the bunch is the Naval Submarine Base New London near the city of Groton. First opened in 1868, it holds the distinction of being the Navy’s very first submarine base. Not only does the facility train submariners and supporting personnel, but it also deploys combat-ready subs and their crews. Connecticut is also home to the 1,862-acre state-owned Stones Ranch Military Reservation.
Delaware: Dover Air Force Base
Total acres: 3,824 Branch: Air Force
Located on the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) Peninsula is Dover Air Force Base, a major American military installation and one of just 10 military sites in the First State. The base is the DoD’s largest aerial port and home to 9,000 joint service members, airmen, family members and supporting personnel. The vaunted Eagle Wing and Liberty Wing units are just two of the storied forces that operate out of the base.
Florida: Eglin Air Force Base
Total acres: 449,421 Branch: Air Force
With 188 bases, Florida is a major military-support state. Near the town of Holt is Eglin Air Force Base, which is home to some of the most legendary units in the armed forces, including the 53rd Fighter Wing, the 6th Ranger Training Battalion, the 7th Special Forces Group, the 96th Test Wing, and the 20th Space Control Squadron.
Georgia: Fort Stewart
Total acres: 279,155 Branch: Army
The largest of Georgia’s 70 military sites is Fort Stewart near the city of Hinesville — it’s actually the single biggest Army installation east of the Mississippi River. Fort Stewart, along with Hunter Army Airfield, is the Army’s top training and armored powered projection facility on the entire Eastern Seaboard. The facility simultaneously conducts small-arms, helicopter-gunnery, tank, and field artillery training.
Hawaii: Pohakuloa Training Area
Total acres: 132,410 Branch: Army
Near the town of Hilo is the Pohakuloa Training Area, which is nestled between volcanic mountains and includes a small military airstrip. The facility — which has enough fuel, ice, rations, and transportation to support as many as 2,300 personnel — was originally developed during World War II to support the campaigns in Iwo Jima and Saipan. It’s one of 143 sites in the militarily strategic state of Hawaii.
Idaho: Saylor Creek Air Force Range
Total acres: 109,466 Branch: Air Force
Located near Mount Home, Saylor Creek Air Force Range is the largest of Idaho’s 61 military installations. Although it’s associated with nearby Mountain Home Air Force Base, which spans 6,858 acres, Saylor Creek also hosts airmen from other bases. Covered with simulated hostile threats, the site is used mostly to train and prepare flying forces for air-to-surface combat.
Illinois: Scott Air Force Base
Total acres: 3,684 Branch: Air Force
Near the town of Belleville is Scott Air Force Base, the largest of the 68 military sites in the state of Illinois. Roughly 46,000 people live on Scott Air Force Base, home of the 375th Air Mobility Wing, including 5,500 active duty personnel, 1,500 reserves, 900 guard, 4,500 civilians, 8,200 family members, and 26,000 retired personnel.
Indiana: Naval Support Activity Crane
Total acres: 62,435 Branch: Navy
NSA Crane was originally established in 1941 and is now the largest among all 50 military sites in Indiana. The base is 40 percent larger than Washington, D.C., and includes 3,000 buildings, 1,800 storage magazines, 500 miles of road and 90 miles of active rail. About 5,000 DoD civilians live and work there compared to just 50 military personnel.
Iowa: Iowa Army Ammunition Plant
Total acres: 19,013 Branch: Army
Located near the city of Middletown, the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant produces large-caliber munitions for the DoD. The facility is a Group Technology Center that researches, develops, manufactures, produces, inspects, packages and delivers items like artillery rounds, tank ammunition, demolition charges and missile warheads.
Kansas: Fort Riley
Total acres: 97,112 Branch: Army
Fort Riley, perched near the city of Manhattan, is the biggest of all 41 military installations in Kansas. The Army garrison, which celebrated a century of service in 2017, is home to the 1st Infantry Division. About 15,000 active-duty service members call Fort Riley home, along with 29,000 vets and retirees, 18,000 family members, and 5,600 civilian employees.
Kentucky: Fort Knox
Total acres: 127,930 Branch: Army
There are only 29 DoD sites in all of Kentucky, and one of them just might be the most famous military base on Earth. Long synonymous with impenetrable security and secrecy, Fort Knox is the sixth-largest urban community in Kentucky and sprawls across three of the state’s counties. In the 1930s, Fort Knox famously began guarding gold headed for the U.S. Treasury, but its core purpose has long been to serve as the headquarters for the American military’s armored and artillery forces.
Louisiana: Fort Polk
Total acres: 236,329 Branch: Army
Fort Polk is one of the Army’s most important training facilities and the home of the Joint Readiness Training Center. One of 35 sites in Louisiana, Fort Polk is home to 8,000 soldiers, 12,000 family members, 6,000 civilian contract employees, and 40,000 retired personnel.
Maine: Naval Air Station Portsmouth Redington Township
Total acres: 12,468 Branch: Navy
There are only 30 bases in all of Maine, and the biggest of them all is intentionally remote, rugged and known for unforgiving terrain and weather. NAS Portsmouth Redington Township is famous for hosting what those who have survived it call “torture school.” They’re referring to SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) School, which trains intelligence officers, flight officers, pilots, and others at high risk for capture how to avoid being taken prisoner, how to survive while evading the enemy in the wilderness, how to resist captors during interrogation, and how to escape if caught. Maine is also home to a 350,000+ acre National Guard training site appropriately called Deepwoods.
Maryland: Aberdeen Proving Ground
Total acres: 77,023 Branch: Army
According to the folks at Aberdeen Proving Ground, “If a soldier uses a piece of technology for protection, intelligence, to shoot, to move or to communicate, chances are it was developed, tested and fielded by an APG organization.” More than 21,000 civilian, contractor and military employees work at the facility, which provides test and tech support to both the DoD and outside entities.
Massachusetts: Camp Edwards
Total acres: 14,712 Branch: Army National Guard
Located near the city of Bourne, Camp Edwards is located on a 22,000-acre facility called Joint Base Cape Cod. The largest training area in the Northeast, Camp Edwards is one of the most prominent military training facilities in the region, but it also trains law enforcement and first responders in disciplines such as weapons, battle simulation, and rappelling.
Michigan: Fort Custer Training Center
Total acres: 7,778 Branch: Army National Guard
Located near the city of Augusta, the Fort Custer Training Center hosts not just Michigan Army National Guard personnel, but also members from surrounding states and even other branches. College ROTC students train there, as do the Michigan State Police, the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies. It boasts small-arms ranges, a renowned distance learning facility, and the newly added Augusta Armory. The Wolverine State owns the nearly 147,000 acres making up the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center in north central part of state. The site is the biggest National Guard training site in the entire country.
Minnesota: NG Arden Hills Army Training Site
Total acres: 1,496 Branch: Army National Guard
Near the city of St. Paul is the largest of Minnesota’s 32 military sites, Arden Hills Army Training Site. In 2018, Minnesota received 20 percent of the entire National Guard’s military construction budget. Much of that was earmarked for a brand new, 136,000-square-foot building at Arden Hills that will serve as the headquarters for the 34th Infantry Division. Also in Minnesota is the National Guard facility Camp Ripley, which boasts some 53,650 acres of which 52,758 are owned by the state.
Mississippi: Camp Shelby
Total acres: 136,215 Branch: Army National Guard
The largest of Mississippi’s 99 military sites is located near Hattiesburg. Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center can support battalion-level maneuver training and serves as a training ground for 109A6 Paladin Howitzers, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and M1 Abrams tanks. Home to the 177th Armored Brigade, Camp Shelby hosts 100,000 personnel in any given year.
Missouri: Fort Leonard Wood
Total acres: 67,437 Branch: Army
What started as a small basic training camp more than three-quarters of a century ago has blossomed into Fort Leonard Wood, a top Army installation that trains 82,600 military and civilians every year. The Maneuver Support Center of Excellence is located at Fort Leonard Wood, which has the capacity to conduct training for the U.S. Army Military Police School, the U.S. Army Engineer School, and the Training and Doctrine Command’s U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear School.
Montana: Limestone Hills Training Area
Total acres: 19,826 Branch: Army National Guard
Montana is home to 247 military sites, more than any state other than California. The biggest of them all is the Limestone Hills Training Area. Used for live-fire and maneuver training for aviation, engineer, artillery, armor, infantry, and special operations units, the facility is closed to the public because of the risk of unexploded ordnance.
Nebraska: Greenlief Training Site
Total acres: 3,247 Branch: Army National Guard
The Greenlief Training Site has been the Nebraska National Guard’s primary armor training site and range since 1966. The site hosts Guard members who train there for three weekends every month. In 2000, the site, located near the city of Hastings, was renamed in honor of Nebraska native and World War II veteran Lt. Gen. Francis S. Greenlief.
Nevada: Nellis Air Force Range
Total acres: 3,092,317 Branch: Air Force
The Nevada Test and Training Range at Nellis Air Force Base, according to the base’s website, “is the largest contiguous air and ground space available for peacetime military operations in the free world.” The massive, sprawling site includes 7,000 square miles of airspace that military craft share with civilian planes and another 5,000 miles of airspace that is restricted from civilian aircraft altogether.
New Hampshire: New Boston Air Station
Total acres: 2,873 Branch: Air Force
The New Boston Air Station is one of only eight Air Force Satellite Control Network tracking stations in the entire world. Satellites operated by the DoD, as well as civilian satellites, satellites from allied countries and NATO satellites, all receive critical control and command capability from the facility. The New Boston Air Station is home to the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, which is part of the 50th Space Wing.
New Jersey: Fort Dix
Total acres: 30,720 Branch: Air Force
Operating under the jurisdiction of the Air Force Air Mobility Command, Fort Dix is the largest of New Jersey’s 31 military installations. It serves as a critical mobilization spot for the New Jersey National Guard, and it’s home to the U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Strike Team, Marine Aircraft Group 49, and the Federal Corrections Institute.
New Mexico: White Sands Missile Range
Total acres: 3,542,862 Branch: Army
New Mexico hosts just 10 military sites, but the biggest of them all happens to be the largest military installation in the entire country. White Sands Missile Range covers more than 3,000 square miles across five counties. In 1945, the world entered the nuclear age when the first atomic bomb test was conducted at the range’s famed Trinity site— the original atomic bomb test was code-named Trinity.
New York: Fort Drum
Total acres: 124,757 Branch: Army
More than 100 military sites are situated in New York, but none larger than Fort Drum near the town of Evans Mills. Home of the legendary 10th Mountain Division, nearly 80,000 military personnel are trained at the site every year. The 10th Mountain rules the roost, but several other units also have a presence there, including the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams, the 86th Infantry Brigade, and the 91st Military Police Battalion.
North Carolina: Fort Bragg
Total acres: 163,535 Branch: Army
Home to more than 50,000 active-duty personnel, Fort Bragg— known as the “home of the Army” — is the world’s largest military installation in terms of population. The Joint Special Operations Command is based there, as is the U.S. Army Reserve Command, but Fort Bragg is most famous as the home of the Airborne and Special Operations Forces.
North Dakota: Minot Air Force Base
Total acres: 5,615 Branch: Air Force
Designed and built in the early days of the Cold War, Minot Air Force Base originally existed to repel Soviet bombing attacks from the north. Today, the base is home to the 5th Bomb Wing and the 91st Missile Wing, and is responsible for aircraft like the gargantuan B-52 Stratofortress and ordnance like the LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Operated by the state National Guard, Camp Grafton on the shores of Devil’s Lake is another sprawling unit in the Peace Garden State and spans nearly 13,000 acres of which 10,667 are owned by the state.
Ohio: Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center
Total acres: 21,427 Branch: Army National Guard
Sprawling across parts of both Trumbull and Portage counties, Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center hosts both weekend and annual training events. Formerly known as the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site, or simply the Ravenna Arsenal, the camp is home to various small-arms ranges as well as permanent facilities. The site is currently undergoing several upgrades, including the addition of a fire-and-movement range and an automated record fire range.
Oklahoma: Fort Sill
Total acres: 93,830 Branch: Army
The biggest of Oklahoma’s 53 military sites, Fort Sill is home to the 75th Field Artillery Brigade, the 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade, the Ordnance Training Detachment and Army Counterintelligence. The Field Artillery School is there, as is the Air Defense Artillery School, and the fort is also responsible for several basic training programs.
Oregon: Naval Weapons System Training Facility Boardman
Total acres: 62,871 Branch: Navy
Out of Oregon’s 26 military sites, the Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility Boardman, known informally as the Boardman Bombing Range, is the biggest of them all. National Guard units use the facility, but Boardman’s central purpose is as the principal training and proving ground for Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
Pennsylvania: Letterkenny Army Depot
Total acres: 18,286 Branch: Army
Headquartered in Chambersburg, 3,600 people work at the Letterkenny Army Depot, making the base the largest employer in Franklin County. Subordinate to the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command, the base bills itself as “the premier DOD center of industrial and technical excellence for air defense tactical missile ground support equipment, mobile electric power generation equipment, Patriot missile recertification and route guidance vehicles.”
Rhode Island: Naval Station Newport
Total acres: 1,338 Branch: Navy
At least 50 Coast Guard, Army Reserve, Marine Corps, and Navy commands are hosted at Naval Station Newport, the largest out of tiny Rhode Island’s 27 military sites. About 5,800 people are employed across those 50 commands, and about 17,000 students learn at the base’s many schools. Midshipmen candidates and senior enlisted personnel are trained and tested there, as are officer candidates and training officers.
South Carolina: Fort Jackson
Total acres: 51,900 Branch: Army
Sixty-eight facilities are scattered around South Carolina, but none as big as Fort Jackson. The site is the Army’s main center for basic combat training. More than half of all Army basic training takes place there, and more than 60 percent of women entering the Army get their training at Fort Jackson.
South Dakota: Ellsworth Air Force Base
Total acres: 6,034 Branch: Air Force
When you include both Site 1 and Site 2 of the facility, Ellsworth Air Force Base is the largest of South Dakota’s 28 military installations. The Air Force recently named the facility the first operational B-21 Raider bomber training site. The base is the home of the 28th Bomber Wing, aligned with the 8th Air Force, and serves as one of only two B-1B bases in the entire world.
Tennessee: Fort Campbell
Total acres: 73,269 Branch: Army
Located on the Tennessee-Kentucky border is Fort Campbell, made famous as the home base of the legendary 101st Airborne Division. The 5th Special Forces group also resides there, as do the 52nd Ordnance Group, the 19th Air Support Operations Squadron Detachment 4, and the 18th Weather Squadron.
Texas: Fort Bliss
Total acres: 1,346,659 Branch: Army
Home to a large military infrastructure, Texas is peppered with 171 military sites, and the biggest of them all is Fort Bliss. Strategically located at the midway point between the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, Fort Bliss is the heart and soul of America’s tank fighters and the home of the 1st Armored Division, which is known as Old Ironsides. The division boasts 17,000 fighting men and women.
Utah: Dugway Proving Ground
Total acres: 852,568 Branch: Army
Dugway Proving Ground is the Army’s most sophisticated center for biological and chemical defense tests. On the base, the DoD, outside agencies and partners from friendly governments work to mitigate chemical, biological, radiological, and explosives hazards. One of the most unforgiving environments on Earth, the region soars as high as 7,000 feet above sea level and experiences temperature swings ranging from minus 15 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
Vermont: Ethan Allen Firing Range
Total acres: 11,157 Branch: Army National Guard
Located in Jericho, the Ethan Allen Firing Range contains a complete weapon testing, development and qualification area for armaments of all kinds. There’s also a comprehensive firing range, and the site is home to the Vermont Mountain Warfare School. About 20,000 troops are trained there every year.
Virginia: Fort A.P. Hill
Total acres: 75,813 Branch: Army
There are 185 facilities in the military-heavy, strategically and geographically important state of Virginia. The biggest of them all is Fort A.P. Hill. The fort is a regional training center that serves the Mid-Atlantic and National Capital regions to provide readiness training for the Army, as well as for joint and interagency teams and missions.
Washington: Cusick Survival Training Site
Total acres: 494,250 Branch: Air Force
Fairchild Air Force Base teaches wilderness survival on nearly half-a-million acres on the Cusick Survival Training Site. There, SERE instructors train airmen and other students in all weather and all conditions about the strategies used to stay alive and undetected in remote, isolated wilderness for days on end while being pursued by enemy forces.
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