Fort Sam Houston is home to U.
S.
Army South, otherwise known as ARSOUTH.
For those who do not know, Texas is the Army's command center for the southern hemisphere.
ARSOUTH focuses on thirty-one countries and ten territories, all located in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The main purpose of U.
S.
Army South is to discover, prevent, and stop threats directed toward the United States.
There is a rich history associated with U.
S.
Army South.
The location of the headquarters was reserved in 1903.
Four years later the location was declared a military project.
The year 1903 is significant for another reason.
The United States began looking after the Panama Canal at this time.
As time continued on, the Army began building forts in an effort to keep the Panama Canal guarded from threats.
The term U.
S.
Army South was assigned to the troops who manned these forts.
Positive changes continued, including strengthening the area by including new roadways.
This occurred in the late 1930's as a result of concern surrounded around European events.
By the end of the decade, there were 14,000 troops stationed in the area.
The following year witnessed that number double to approximately 28,000 troops.
By the time 1943 came around, an astounding 67,000 troops were responsible for this geographical location.
Smoke machines, machine guns, and other modern technologies of the time were readily available for use if necessary.
Following World War II, the Panama Canal Department was called by another name, the United States Army Caribbean.
During the presidency of Harry Truman, the Caribbean Command was considered one of the nation's unified command centers.
One-thousand soldiers from the CDC received orders to transfer from this post to New Caledonia, located in the southwest Pacific.
The skills the soldier's retained for this mission were considered to be essential.
In fact, during the second half of the 1900's the CDC had the important task of keeping jungle warfare skills alive and active in the Army.
Fort Sherman, most notably, was where soldier's were exposed to jungle warfare.
Countless soldier's who fought in Vietnam were trained at Fort Sherman.
In 1963, additional name changes occurred.
These name changes were brought about to reflect the fact the Army was handling both the Caribbean and America.
The United States Caribbean Command was called the United States Southern Command.
The United States Army Caribbean was renamed The United States Army Forces Southern Command.
During the 1970's, there were roughly 14,000 soldiers located here.
Following the Panama Canal Treaties in the late 1970's, the soldier's had new roles.
Their headquarters were relocated to Fort Clayton and they were now a light brigade rather than a heavy brigade.
Jumping forward to 1986, U.
S.
Army South was turned into an Army command center.
This unified command center served as the location where the United States Southern Command was able to undertake growing responsibilities.
These responsibilities included additional territories and countries.
Specifically, these responsibilities included thirty-one countries and ten territories located throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
During the late 1980's, soldiers originating from Columbia, Venezuela, Belize, Paraguay, Salvador, Chili, and Argentina worked in conjunction with U.
S.
Army South.
These soldiers learned effective strategies necessary to survive and succeed in jungle warfare.
The skills learned in this setting were specialized, in a way, as it was not traditional combat.
Fast-forwarding twenty years, after the Twin Towers in New York were destroyed by terrorist activity, the forces made changes that were necessary in direct relation to this event.
The history of U.
S.
Army south spans a century.
Many important milestones were reached along the way which has made them into the highly regarded center they are today.