El Paso County and Fort Carson were presented on Tuesday, Dec. 4 with a 2018 Army Community Partnership Award for the Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex Trap and Skeet Range. On Tuesday, Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez, Jr., County Executive Director of Community Services Tim Wolken and Fort Carson Garrison Commander Col. Brian Wortinger were at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. to accept the award.
“We are honored to be recognized by the Department of the Army,” Gonzalez said. “This is just one example of El Paso County’s mission to continue to build and foster strong partnerships with other entities in the County and throughout the Pikes Peak Region. We are very proud of our military community. And the Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex is a model of how we can join together with our military partners to do great things and better serve the community as a whole.”
El Paso County is home to the Fort Carson U.S. Army Base, Peterson and Schriever Air Force bases, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the United States Air Force Academy. More than 98,000 veterans and their families call the Pikes Peak Region home.
The Cheyenne Mountain Shooting Complex is a joint project between the U.S. Army, El Paso County, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife. The 400-acre site sits on Army land near Interstate 25 just off mile marker 132 in the southern part of the County. Shooters using the range do not have to enter Fort Carson to use the range.
El Paso County and Fort Carson received one of seven Army Community Partnership Awards that were presented at the Pentagon on Tuesday. The other six honorees included Fort Detrick which partnered with the County of Frederick, Maryland, Fort Polk in Louisiana was recognized for three partnerships, Fort Riley partnered with the City of Manhattan, Kansas, Parks Reserve Forces Training Area (PRFTA) partnered with the federal correctional institution at Dublin, California, the South Carolina Army National Guard partnered with the SCANA Corporation on several, and the Wisconsin National Guard/Department of Military Affairs partnered with the private electric utilities of Wisconsin. Follow this link for more details about all these partnerships.