Being a part of the United States, Puerto Rico shares the same goal and that is to protect the interest of not only their people but the whole country as well. Puerto Rico is dedicated into making sure that their quality of service will uplift the lives of their citizens and their families. Their military base is set so the people who swore to do everything they can for the welfare of the country and its citizens will not feel like they have been away from home at all. Fort Buchanan Puerto Rico Army Base is the best place that one can enjoy service to their fellow Americans while enjoying every day living, working and playing.

Map of Fort Buchanan

History of Fort Buchanan Puerto Rico Army Base

Located at the Metropolitan area of San Juan, the Fort Buchanan Army Base is the only active military installation in the Puerto Rico. This army base is serving under the direct control of the Installation Management Command, Southeast Region or IMCOM-SE. Their mission is to provide soldiers, civilians and their families with a quality of life commensurate with the quality of their service. The vision of the army base Home Away From Home is a statement of how they value the people who dedicated their lives in serving their fellowmen. Fort Buchanan is considered as the most desired Military Community where one can live, work and play.

When Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493 during his second voyage in searching for the New World, it is already a part of four-century old Spanish empire. The history of Fort Buchanan and the history of the U.S. Army are closely linked and it can be dated back to the 19th century Spanish-American war. When the Spanish forces left Puerto Rico, it became the unincorporated territory of the United States through the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898.

When the Porto Rico Regiment of Infantry, United States Army as created, Lieutenant Colonel James Anderson Buchanan commanded it where he was later promoted to Colonel then Brigadier General. He served for 5 years in Puerto Rico and the military installation was named after him. Buchanan was also the first commander of the Puerto Rico Regiment. At first, Fort Buchanan served as the training range and maneuver area for the Army and the National Guard Troops until it served as a command depot having post facilities, a special training center and a personnel center. Later on, it was closed as an Army Post in 1966 only to be restored by the Third U.S. Army. At present, Fort Buchanan is a Garrison under the Installation Management Command, Southeast Region or IMCOM-SE.

Mission of Fort Buchanan Army Base

Fort Buchanan Army Base in Puerto Rico is dedicated to enable their customers to provide a sustainable base support and excellent services for the people they are serving. The goal of Fort Buchanan is leadership, infrastructure, and customer-focus. Being focused on leadership, Fort Buchanan aims to develop and retain visionary leaders as well as an innovative and professional workforce in the process.

Their goal on infrastructure aims to plan, design, build and sustain their infrastructure in order to support readiness and mission execution among them while enhancing the well-being of their federal community. Because Fort Buchanan is customer-focus, they tend to be an agile, results-oriented, customer-driven organization that will support current and future missions.

As a personal guidance to the people inside the Army base, Fort Buchanan instills the values of loyalty, duty, selfless service, respect, honor, integrity, personal courage, care, empowerment, stewardship and consistency on their people. Their military should be passionate on serving the people and they must exhibit genuine concern for all.

By being loyal, Fort Buchanan bears true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution as they are expected to. Their loyalty will also include their allegiance and true faith to their units and other soldiers as well. Their duty is centered on fulfilling their obligations to the country, to the people especially their families. They should be able to treat other people with respect so they can be treated with respect, too. Having selfless service is another value taught inside Fort Buchanan. Selfless service would mean that they would always put the welfare of their nation, the Army and other subordinates as their own. Their personal concerns should always go second in the list.

Honor is as important as any other value because this will ensure that the people entering Fort Buchanan will live up to all of the values promoted by the Army. Integrity should be innate in each and every person in the military base because this would make them do what is right, regardless of the factors in a legal and moral way. Personal courage is not really something that should be taught to a person, but rather, it should be pre-existing. A person who wishes to enter Fort Buchanan should be able to face all sorts of danger, fear and adversity. Personal courage would also mean that a person would be able to provide authority in the workforce and he can use whatever resources are there to carry out their mission.

Facts and Figures of Fort Buchanan Army Base

Fort Buchanan is recognized for their power support platform with the power projection capability. They stand as a beacon.

Total acres: Fort Buchanan occupies 746.16 acres of land.

Real estate value: The whole area value is $560 million.

Miles of roads: Inside, the total miles of roads combined are 14 miles.

Number of buildings: There are 483 buildings inside Fort Buchanan.

Housing units: There are 119 housing units inside.

Post enrollment: On post school enrollment, there are 1, 971.

Garrison budget: The Garrison budget of Fort Buchanan is estimated to be $42 million.

Mobilization expenses: $9.6 million is allotted for their mobilization expenses.

Commissary sales: The commissary sales reach $ 24.7 million.

AAFES sales: The AAFES sales reach $ 104.2 million.

AAFES contribution to the MWR fund: The contribution has a total of $6.3 million and $3.2 million of this goes to Garrison.