Red River Army Depot, TX Installation Guide

Red River Army Depot is located in Northeast Texas, 18 miles west of Texarkana, USA; 150 miles west of Little Rock, AR, and 170 miles east of Dallas, TX. The communities of Hooks, New Boston, Leary, Redwater, Maud, DeKalb, and Redlick surround the base. There is a lot of old fashion East Texas hospitality on post and in the friendly surrounding communities.

RRAD covers over 19,000 acres and is adjacent to the Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant. Our Major Command is the U. S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command. In compliance with the Base Realignment and Alignment Commission Act of 1995, Red River has declared several hundred of its 19,000 acres of land, and over 100 of our 1,400 buildings to be excess to our needs. We are working closely with local government entities to facilitate development of that exess property and creation of jobs. This partnership is helping us position ourselves to move strategically into the next century.

Red River has major depot-level support missions in the areas of maintenance and missile recertification, supported by a variety of base operations functions. RRAD's Maintenance facilities are used to rebuild and refurbish multi-million dollar Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems to like-new condition, at a fraction of original cost. Red River is also the Army's central source of rebuilt brack and roadwheels for tanks and other tracked vehicles. Our Missile Recertification Directorate recertifies HAWK and PATRIOT missiles. Recertification is a process to assure that missiles which have been stored for some time will be functional when fired. We also have a permanent sub-installation at Weilerbach, Germany, which recertifies PATRIOT missiles in Europe.

To carry out our mission we support a population of 8 active duty officers (two of which are tenants), 1 enlisted member, and 24 total family members. We also serve approximately 5500 retirees, 1514 civilian employees, 942 tenants, 65 reserve component officers, 730 reserve component enlisted, and approximately 100 "other" active duty in the area. We also support approximately 223 non-appropriated fund (NAF) employees.

Telephone access for Red River is as follows: Commercial 903/334-2141 or DSN 829-2141 for the automated directory attendant. All activities at RRAD have an area code and prefix of 903/334-xxxx or DSN of 829-xxxx. All off base local numbers have an area code of 903 for Texas and 870 for Southwest Arkansas.

The normal tour of duty for the depot is a four-day, ten hour per day work week. Administrative activities are open 0645-1715 Monday thru Thursday. Maintenance activities work from 0630-1700 Monday thru Thursday. Some areas and tenants work five days a week, usually 0730 to 1600.

History: Texarkana Chamber of Commerce officials began lobbying the Army for a military installation long before World War II. A June 1941 law provided for an ordnance depot to be built in western Bowie County, Texas. Construction had already begun when the nation went to war in December. Before the ammunition storage buildings were finished, Red River had been assigned the additional missions of tank repair and storage of general supplies. After WW II, the huge installation took on work from several smaller bases.

The same missions have continued through the Korean conflict, the Vietnam war, and Operation Desert Storm. Missile missions have been added. General supply and vehicle storage and distribution is now performed by Red River's Defense Logistics Agency tenant, Defense Depot Red River.