Fort Lewis (Washington)

Joint Base Lewis–McChord
Part of Installation Management Command
Located near: Tacoma, Washington
Personnel of the 17th Field Artillery Brigade, Fort Lewis
Coordinates	47°06′21″N 122°33′52″W / 47.10583°N 122.56444°W / 47.10583; -122.56444
Site information
Controlled by	United States Army
Site history
Built	1917
In use	1917–present
Garrison information
Garrison	Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Joint Base Garrison (US Army)

Fort Lewis is a United States Army base located 9.1 miles (14.6 km) south-southwest of Tacoma, Washington. Fort Lewis was merged with McChord Air Force Base on February 1, 2010, to form Joint Base Lewis–McChord.

Fort Lewis, named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was one of the largest and most modern military reservations in the United States, consisting of 87,000 acres (136 sq mi; 350 km²) of prairie land cut from the glacier-flattened Nisqually Plain. It is the premier military installation in the northwest and the most requested duty station in the Army.^[1]

Joint Base Lewis-McChord (Fort Lewis) is a major Army installation, with much of the 2nd Infantry Division in residence, along with Headquarters, the 7th Infantry Division, 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, and the 1st Special Forces Group. However, the Headquarters of the 7th Infantry Division is primarily a garrison management body. Fort Lewis's geographic location provides rapid access to the deep-water ports of Tacoma, Olympia, and Seattle for deploying equipment. Units can be deployed from McChord Field, and individuals and small groups can also use the nearby Sea-Tac Airport. The strategic location of the base provides Air Force units with the ability to conduct combat and humanitarian airlifts with the C-17 Globemaster III.^[2]