After nearly 60 years of presence in the West Texas desert, the German Air Force is officially deactivating its USA/Canada Command.
The move is the first concrete step toward the Germans pulling out of Fort Bliss by 2017.
It's part of a German military reorganization. The command dwindled from about 40 officers in previous years to about two dozen, and only seven remained before being officially shuttered Tuesday.
They'll transfer to New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base, some 70 miles north of El Paso. The Luftwaffe flight training center there will take over responsibilities of the disbanded command.
The Fort Bliss will still host about 140 German officers at its Air Defense Center, where over 50,000 German soldiers learned the use of anti-air weapons over the past 57 years.
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