The neighborhood military space

My previous post concerned "sacred spaces" of San Antonio. More than once in earlier postings, I celebrate this city's origin as a mission station. Other people will emphasize that S.A. has been a military locale "from the beginning". And it cannot be denied that five days following the founding of Misión San Antonio de Valero the presidio or fort to protect this mission was established (along with the small community or villa for the soldiers' families and the handful of other families settling here with them). To this day some form of military post or presence indeed has remained here.

The oldest of the remaining active military establishments in San Antonio is Fort Sam Houston, an Army post founded in 1876. This Army post sits just a couple miles south of my residence. Among its characteristics, "Fort Sam" as it's affectionately called is THE training center for medical personnel for the US Army. Soon it will be THE training center for all military medical personnel for all branches, if I understand the recent news correctly. AND. . . my "baby" brother (13 years younger but much taller than I), who has just returned to active Army duty, will resume his service as a medic at Fort Sam. Hooray! I shall finally have blood family here in the Alamo City!

This historic and still very important Army post includes an old building compound, the Quadrangle, with a tall clock tower in the center. The fighting Apache leader Geronimo was briefly secured in the Quad on his way to more permanent imprisonment after his second capture. I remember visiting the Quad years ago to see its historic edifices, along with the deer and peacocks, and once I even attended a chaplains Christmas party in the Quad. It stands beside the gate at the southwest edge of the post where North New Braunfels Avenue used to enter Fort Sam before proceding north for a half mile (approximately) to another gate just a few blocks south of the S.A. Botanical Center.

Since 9-11 both gates on North New Braunfels Avenue have been permanently closed and blocked. This has been deleterious to the many small businesses on the avenue between the south-ward gate and IH-35. It also forced VÍA Metro Transit to re-route a couple of routes (closing of another gate to the northeast a year or so after I moved here in effect eliminated VÍA bus service onto or even near Fort Sam).

So there has been agitation for the Army facility to reopen the New Braunfels Avenue gates and/or other gates blocked due to 9-11. This past Thursday evening the local Metropolitan Planning Organization hosted a workshop meeting near the fort, for the neighborhood. An MPO is a government-enacted entity that is supposed to oversee planning and funding of the infrastructure of a given major urban area, especially the transportation factor. This meeting was held at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, on the west-bound access road of IH-35 a few blocks west of the New Braunfels intersection with the Interstate. Specifically, the meeting was in the church's community center building. Too bad it wasn't in the sanctuary. I say such because the sanctuary building is a beautifully-proportioned golden-brown brick classic Romanesque structure. It features twin corner steeples, flanking a rose window above a triple-arch main entrance. I always enjoy laying eyes on St. Patrick's whenever I ride the express bus from Randolph Park & Ride to downtown!

Even tho' the MPO meeting/workshop took place in the community center rather than the sanctuary (for obvious reasons, and my sentimentality isn't going to change that), I was glad to attend. We were given a brief presentation covering the many changes at Fort Sam in the past few years, focusing on the recent BRAC (Base Re-alignment And Closure) decision to move certain major command units of the US Army to Fort Sam and to enhance its medical aspect. To the current (or recent) 22,000 active Army personnel positions on post will be added over ten thousand new positions. (My brother Patrick's position MAY be one of these new ones.) This means that there will be MUCH MORE TRAFFIC entering and exiting the post for duty. So it looks like the command will HAVE to re-open closed gates as well as current plans to widen currently-open gates.

What I hope for most from this is that the Quadrangle will again be easily accessible and access to the parade ground for the Fort Sam Fiesta celebration will also be easier. Even more, I long for VÍA bus service to be resumed along Harry Wurzback past the National Cemetery. Do you know? I still haven't fulfilled my resolve to visit the grave of the late General MacDermott, retired head of USAA? (See my posting on 1 Sept. '06.)