Major General Stephen Twitty
one-hundred-thirty thousand jobs inderectly created. that’s what the military provides for the sate of texas according to the state comptroller. all those jobs help created a 24.1 billion dollar total output…. and 14.2 billion dollars worth of finished goods and services produced in texas. abc-seven was at fort bliss today as texas comptroller glenn hegar thanked post officials for their contributions to the state economy. hegar added, “from traing troops an maintaing military equipment to caring for our wounded and overseeing defense contracts, our installations provide both economic and intangible benefits. state numbers show fort bliss is the single largest employer in the region … creating an estimated annual disposable personal income of approximately 8.2 billion dollars. and according to the u.s. census bureau, fort bliss is the u.s.’ second-largest military installation geographically, with 1.12 million acres in texas and new mexico. it would encompass houston, san antonio, dallas, and austin. fort bliss states it is considered the army’s flagship for home station training in close combat tactics and engagement skills. a lot of the recent success at fort bliss is thanks in part to the post commanger stephen twitty. tonight, abc-seven with a special interview as he bids farewell to the borderland. i’m joined tonight by abc-seven reporter darren hunt … who was given a one on one interview with the outgoing fort bliss general. darren, surely an emotional day for general twitty. did he let it show? estela, he’s a soldier first, so not a lot of emotion when talking about the military … but he did show some emotion while talking about fort bliss and its relationship with el paso. pkg “we’ve made some tremendous friends over the time period that we’ve been here, long lasting friends, for forever, for a lifetime.” majo general stephen twitty reflected on his seven years at fort bliss over the past decade plus. “the huge growth, the construction that has gone on here at fort bliss, it is enormous, larger than any installation we have in our army.” undergoing more than five billion dollars in improvements and a quadrupling of the post’s population of soldiers has led to its share of challenges. “we do have soldiers that get i trouble, we also have to understand that this installation grew from about 9,000 to about 35,000 soldiers on a daily basis … i tell every single soldier when i stand up and brief them on thursday when we get new soldiers in, they have to understand they are visitors in this city.” twitty has coined the phrase el paso is fort bliss and fort bliss is el paso. “i have a great relationshi with mayor oscar leeser, people on the city council, we talk routinely we share ideas and the old saying el paso is fort bliss and fort bliss is el paso is true.” “we can’t survive without you but i get the feeling you can’t survive without us.” “that’s right, we can’t … s its important as an army we stay connected to the people we serve.” general twitty is headed to illinois to become commanding general of first army … and darren, there he’ll be in charge of bringing together active duty, army reserve and army national guard soldiers. thank you for letting us know what he has planned. rick?
