In its 235 year history, the US military has experienced many changes in the lands and facilities required to address evolving military threats and missions. Each century has presented distinct challenges as determined by the needs of the era, e.g., to counter external or internal threats, to achieve materiel production, to establish leadership and training, to protect the coastlines, to secure internal travel routes, or to prepare for the projection of force hundreds or thousands of miles outside the United States. At any given time, one or more of these differing concerns were the driving reasons behind the establishment of each military installation. The current “landscape” of installations reflects a response to these differing threats across the entire nation’s history.
The US Department of Defense has recently been reviewing the inventory of military bases to determine if they are all still relevant and useful, if there are too many or too few installations, and if they are well located to respond to current and emerging threats. This review will also address what happens when an installation is believed to no longer be needed, i.e., when and how that installation may be converted to another purpose. This report informs that review by providing an historical context that focuses on when, where, and why military installations were created and placed on the landscape.
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