FORT CARSON — The new commander of Fort Carson said Friday that Army training exercises at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site are vital for soldiers’ safety in combat.
“If we don’t properly train them, they die,” Maj. Gen. Joseph Anderson told reporters at Fort Carson, an infantry post just outside Colorado Springs.
Anderson reiterated the Army’s position that it has no plans for at least five years to expand the 370-square- mile site, which is about 120 miles southeast of Fort Carson. Fort Carson soldiers get some of their training there.
“No one’s asking for an acre. No one’s asking for an inch,” he said.
The Army’s on-again, off-again expansion efforts at Piñon Canyon have angered some farmers and ranchers, who say it would hurt the local economy by taking too much land out of agricultural use.
