Army to increase troop training at Piñon Canyon

The U.S. Army intends to increase its level of training at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS), Fort Carson Garrison Commander Col. Robert McLaughlin announced at Tuesday’s meeting of the Las Animas County commissioners. The PCMS is a 237,000-acre Army training site acre with an entrance located about 26 miles to the northeast of Trinidad. The increase in training levels at the PCMS, McLaughlin said, is part of a new training program at Fort Carson called Vision 2020. “Within that visions, we’re balancing what we need to do to train our soldiers for deployment,” he said. “The vision is to use the terrain at PCMS in its current state to get more soldiers and equipment down there to train.” Adding, “As long as I’ve been here, that’s been the focus. There has not been a focus on expansion of PCMS. The focus is completely on using the terrain as it stands to increase our training and community partnership.” Pressed by Commissioner Gary Hill, however, McLaughlin declined to declare future expansion attempts at PCMS “off the table” for the Army...more