FORT BRAGG, N.C. — The Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center have turned the home of the Army’s elite combat forces into a war zone, with barricades, armed troops and armored vehicles deployed on its street corners.
Parking lots usually filled with military and civilian workers are empty. White tape and barbed wire block entrances to office buildings.
On-post traffic has been routed away from headquarters of the 18th Airborne Corps, 82nd Airborne Division and the U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
Soldiers stand guard at the entrances of housing and shopping areas, questioning those coming and going about the purpose of the visit.
The heightened security has come with a price for troops and their families living off post.
Many waited six hours and longer in traffic to drive onto the post Sept. 12.
Security still was intense Sept. 13, but not all vehicles were stopped and searched at Bragg’s nine entrances, which include access gates from four major roads or highways used by about 120,000 people each day.
Only people with military identification cards and Fort Bragg stickers on their cars are being allowed on post.
Hours after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, both Bragg and nearby Pope Air Force Base went into Force Protection Condition Delta, as did all U.S. military installations worldwide.
And Fort Bragg is not alone in its efforts. Soldiers at Forts Benning, Stewart and Gordon in Georgia, Fort Carson, Colo., Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Drum, N.Y., are seeing increased security efforts change their lives, too.
Access to facilities has been restricted and recreation activities have been postponed, cancelled or closed. Traffic has been rerouted.
Schools were delayed or closed at Benning, Stewart, Carson and Bragg, and schedules for military and civilian workers at various posts are being decided day to day. On Sept. 13, only key staff members were asked to come to work at most installations.
Some installation officials closed entry gates to two-way traffic, opening the gates for several hours a day for in-bound or out-bound vehicles only.
Other installations rerouted military identification card holders into separate gates and contract or other government workers to different entrances.
Such intense efforts are possible now because the military has a mandate to increase security at military installations by Aug. 1, said Marla Jones, a Fort Gordon spokeswoman.
“Certainly, our security efforts and planning have paid off,” she said. “You see lots of barricades on post, but overall the security is not visible. We do have to show our ID cards a number of times to get in and out of buildings.”
Pfc. Christopher Prayerton said the armed guards standing watch on Fort Bragg seemed a bit much.
“They need to do something for protection,” said Prayerton, 21, with XVIII Airborne Corps. “They need to do all of this on the outside of post, not inside.”
