Fort Sam Houston

Military installation in east-central San Antonio, Texas. It occupies a 13.4 sq km/5 sq mi site just east of Brackenridge Park and 3 km/2 mi northeast of the city centre. ‘Fort Sam’ is famous as the training ground for the ‘Rough Riders’, the illustrious cavalry unit formed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1898 to fight in the Spanish–American War. US military aviation also began here in 1910, when Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois piloted a Wright biplane from the fort.

Fort Sam Houston was formally established in 1890, although parts of its grounds had been in use since the 1870s; the heavily constructed quadrangle dates from 1879. The fort is now home to Brooke Army Medical Centre and to the Institute for Surgical Research, famous for its plastic surgery treatment of severe burns. It is also the headquarters of the Fifth Army, and controls training at Camp Bullis (area 113 sq km/44 sq mi), 23 km/14 mi to the northwest, outside the San Antonio city limits.In addition to being the site of military exercises, Bullis is also a grazing area and wildlife refuge.