While there are two very serious, headline dominating wars now on going—Ukraine and Israel— this holiday season the United States is not militarily engaged in any conflicts. This should not indicate that there are only two wars being fought today, only that the two aforementioned are the ones grabbing the headlines.
There are wars today being fought on continents around the world with an aggregate of casualties numbering in the thousands every single day. Some are wars that began decades ago, others are new, while a handful are like campfires that have not been fully extinguished, periodically flaring up because neither victory nor resolution has ever been achieved. Other times it’s because new leadership simply decides to resume the battle. But the throughline with each is that every day people die.
They die, men, women and children, in Armenia and Azerbaijan, Syria and Yemen, Tigray and Ethiopia. They die in Haiti and in Mexico where drug cartels have waged war with the government for decades. In other places, there is no war, but its shadow remains long and dark. Tensions percolate between China and Taiwan; North Korea seems in a never-ending mindset of war.
But this holiday, despite real-time wars in so many places and hotspots with the potential of almost immediate ignition, American troops, despite being deployed across the globe, are engaged only as monitors and not combatants. Ready but only if called upon.
At Fort Carson, the storied Army post just south of Colorado Springs, and the permanent duty station for more than 25,000 soldiers, it will be a quiet holiday, said Brandy Gill, a post public affairs specialist. “A lot of soldiers get to go home,” she said. But for others, “we have a wide range of things that we do to help celebrate the holiday season.”
Fort Carson recently held its annual Christmas tree lighting, an opportunity for not only soldiers but their families to enjoy one of the post’s long held traditions. Post commander, Major General David Doyle along with one attending child hit the switch lighting the tree. In a post news release chronicling the event, Doyle said, “As we approach the holiday season,” he told families, “we approach this time of festivity where we can spend time with one another, let’s spend time with Families.”
The lighting is one of many events the Army and Fort Carson do to create a seasonal touch offsetting the ‘cammy’ hues of everyday life, said Gill. “We really try to help soldiers feel at home, part of the community and feel embraced.” The post also hosted a “Trees for Troops” event, where soldiers stationed at the post bring their families for a Christmas tree giveaway.
Gill also said that the holiday means a number of units on the post will hold their own holiday parties. Additionally, troops remaining on post will be treated to a special holiday meal at one of the many dining halls scattered across the sprawling military post.
While the Army eschews an official connection with any religion, it nonetheless has chaplains “to provide religious services to all the soldiers,” Gill said. “Our chaplains are taught to respect all religions and provide services to all soldiers.”
Fort Carson became part of the state and region in 1942 as the U.S. was entering World War II. It was then known as Camp Carson. It wasn’t until 1954 when it was officially designated as Fort Carson. Today the post, once home to storied military names including former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Wesley Clark, now occupies parts of three counties, El Paso, Fremont and Pueblo.
Today, with more than 25,000 soldiers and their families and nearly 50,000 civilians supporting the post’s mission, Fort Carson is a city within a city and a huge economic boon to Colorado Springs.
It is estimated that Fort Carson along with four other military installations in El Paso County, generates nearly half of all the Pentagon’s money—$18 billion—in the entire state of Colorado.
When the holiday season ends and a new year begins, the post returns to the business at hand. Troops return to training, with deployments to different parts of the country and the world. It’s the job they have for meeting the chal- lenges of a dangerous world and challenges it has met in wars and conflicts over the decades of its existence.
A year ago, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed said tersely, peace “is now under grave threat” around the world. In fact, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, an organization that tracks wars globally, said 2022 and 2023 were the hottest years for war since the end of the cold war. As history attests, it is a reality at Fort Carson, both for the troops and their families.
From World War II to today, thousands of Fort Carson soldiers have served the nation with many making the supreme sacrifice. The post regularly and solemnly hon- ors fallen soldiers who’ve fought and died in service of country. In 2010, eight Fort Carson-trained troops died in a single weekend in what the Army called the deadliest day of fighting since Viet Nam. Nearly 300 Fort Carson troops combined were killed in battles fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
