Welcome to Joint Base San Antonio

JOINT BASESan Antonio

Welcome to Joint Base San Antonio!

elcome to Joint Base San Antonio and the great state of Texas. The joint basing idea was born as a result of Congress authorizing the Department of Defense to conduct a Base Realignment and Closure Round (BRAC) in 2005. BRAC was implemented in the hope of achieving several goals: to eliminate excess infrastructure; to reshape the military; to pursue cooperation between all five military services, or “jointness;” to optimize military readiness and to realize significant monetary savings in support of transforming the DoD.

BRAC 2005 was designed to reconfigure current infrastructure into one in which operational capacity maximizes both war fighting capability and efficiency. By creating these joint organizational and basing solutions, DoD will facilitate multi-service missions, reduce waste and duplication of capabilities and services, save money, and free up resources to recruit quality people, modernize equipment and infrastructure and to develop the capabilities needed to meet 21st Century threats.

Under the BRAC Joint Basing plan for San Antonio, a city which at one time was home to five military bases and is still aptly termed “Military City USA,” installation support functions at Fort Sam Houston have combined with those at Randolph and Lackland Air Force Bases to form the DoD’s largest military base organization, Joint Base San Antonio.

In San Antonio, 49 support functions at the three joint base installations are run by the 502nd Air Base Wing, a command headed by an Air Force brigadier general. The 502nd ABW encompasses three subordinate support groups - one at each of the three San Antonio military bases. Support functions are designated by the following categories: • Command Support - safety, public affairs, legal, inspector general, procurement, chaplain, history and financial management • Community Services - morale, welfare & recreation, youth programs, family services and lodging operation • Environmental Services - compliance, pollution prevention, conservation and

restoration Facilities: utilities, pest control, custodial & refuse collection, grounds & pavement maintenance, real property leases and management & engineering • Fire & Emergency Services - fire department, emergence response services and readiness (crisis response) • Housing - family housing and dormitory management • Human Resources - military personnel and management analysis • Information Technology - IT services • Logistics - supply, munitions, laundry, vehicle operations and food services • Operational Mission Services - airfield operations and small arms & firing ranges • Security Services (Military Police) - law enforcement, physical security and installation protection

With the advent of joint basing, Fort Sam Houston now houses the Medical Education Training Campus (METC). This means all enlisted medical service members, from every branch of the military, train to become combat-capable medics and other medicallycentered technicians there.

About 10,000 servicemen and women are under instruction at METC at any one time; approximately 47,000 of them will graduate yearly. The METC complex, which is completed, encompasses about 1.9 million square feet of facilities, including dorms, classrooms, laboratories, a physical fitness center and an 80,000-square foot dining facility that is believed to be the largest in the Army’s inventory.

When one considers also that all Air Force enlisted personnel are trained at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, and when the number of instructor pilots and unmanned aircraft system operators trained at nearby Randolph AFB are added to those student totals at Lackland AFB and the number of METC graduates, the result is this: Joint Base San Antonio now teaches and houses more DoD students than at any other U.S. military installation.

Also, with the inclusion of aerial operations happening at Randolph and Lackland Air Force Bases, Joint Base San Antonio controls and administers more active runways than at any other DoD base.

Additionally, Joint Base San Antonio now hosts the San Antonio Military Entrance Processing Station Headquarters, which services as the region’s processing station for all applicants preparing to join the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. All new recruits in the region must process through the San Antonio MEPS before being assigned to initial service training.

Besides hosting a number of widely diverse tenant units, Joint Base San Antonio is home to the DoD’s largest hospital, Fort Sam Houston’s Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC).

BAMC itself is an integral component of San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC), a command created in 2005 when BRAC directed the realignment of the inpatient medical function of the 59th Medical Wing, located at Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB, to BAMC. By September 2011, BAMC absorbed all inpatient services from WHMC and provides all inpatient tertiary care as well as all trauma and emergency medical care. Changes made to BAMC as a result of new construction there added almost 760,000 square feet to the existing hospital, expanding it by roughly 50 percent. A multi-story addition houses a state-of-theart Level 1 trauma center, operating rooms, clinical and administrative spaces and an extension of the hospital’s internationally-acclaimed burn center. Additionally, about 288,000 square feet of the existing BAMC facilities have undergone renovation. Renovations to Wilford Hall Medical Center converting that former hospital into an ambulatory care clinic cover almost 146,000 square feet, re-inventing it into “SAMMC-South,” the DoD’s largest ambulatory outpatient clinic.

Another primary component of BRAC concerns military medical research facilities. The 150,000 square-foot Joint Center of Excellence for Battlefield Health and Trauma research next to BAMC will bring together tri-service research teams to enhance the delivery of combat casualty care. The nearby Tri-Service Research laboratory is a 181,000 square-foot structure housing research efforts that examine the health and safety effects of exposure to a variety of stressors in the field.

Plus, the Intrepid National Armed Forces Rehabilitation Center is providing state-of-the-art care for servicemen and women who have experienced debilitating wounds on the battlefield. It provides military amputees with improved rehabilitation resources by using advanced prosthetics, computerized and video monitoring, bio-mechanical studies and advanced physical therapy modalities and methods. The Center, which cost about $30 million, offers healthcare on a comprehensive approach – physical, occupational, social, mental and nutritional help. It also houses an administrative center for physician teams including orthopedic surgeons, prosthetists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, gait therapists, dieticians, social workers, technicians and researchers.

Two 21-room houses are built next to the Center to house the families of veterans undergoing rehabilitation there. Known collectively as the Fisher House, this residential facility has a day care and a recreational center for residing families. Plans for improvement there also include a children’s support space to help children of wounded warriors understand and manage challenges associated with their parent’s condition and treatment.

Additionally, a 132,000 squarefoot, state-of-the-art medical facility opened on Fort Sam Houston. The facility provides outpatient services in Family Medicine, Adolescent Medicine, Behavioral Health, Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy, as well as Laboratory, Radiology and Pharmacy services.

Active-duty military personnel and their families as well as military retirees may receive healthcare services at the facility. They will also treat additional personnel coming to Fort Sam Houston as part of other BRAC actions.

Its location is extremely convenient for active-duty military personnel and their families, and even for many military retirees who live in San Antonio. It also contains the TRICARE service center offering assistance and information on the military beneficiary care program.

As you can see, Joint Base San Antonio serves many purposes and has been a great success. We hope you enjoy your stay.