EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Col. Michael Soyka has made it a point to help his fellow soldiers during his two-decade-plus Army career – to be their best person and to be their best soldier.
And his new job as Fort Bliss Garrison commander will allow him to do that on an even greater level, he said.
Soyka, a 45-year-old native of Westlake, Ohio, took over as Garrison commander at Fort Bliss back in August. He succeeded Col. Brendan Gallagher, who retired from the Army.
“I have spent a lot of my career trying to find ways to help soldiers – to help them advance their lives, help them advance their goals and find a way to be a better version of themselves,” Soyka said.
“Now, I get to help soldiers. I get to help (military) families. I get to help veterans,” Soyka continued. “I get to help a whole community.”
The Garrison commander is the Army equivalent of a city manager. The Garrison commander oversees a far-reaching organization that includes emergency services, public works, child care and other services that reach pretty much everyone who works and lives at Fort Bliss.
The goal is to have Fort Bliss run smoothly as an installation so the senior commanding general and everyone else are able to concentrate on readiness and their warfighting mission.
The Garrison commander, in many ways, is also the face of Fort Bliss to the civilian community.
Maintaining and building relationships out in the El Paso community is a big part of the job.
“Fort Bliss and El Paso are intricately linked,” Soyka said. “We have many things where we have a direct connection. That’s from our schools to our electricity and water. We have to work together.”
As Garrison commander, Soyka serves as an ex-officio and non-voting member of the El Paso Independent School District Board.
“It gives me an opportunity to help our military-connected children as they navigate the EPISD environment,” he said.
Another example of working with the community: Fort Bliss is looking to “repurpose” one of its two 18-hole golf courses at Underwood Golf Complex.
Soyka said they found mussels – a clam-like creature – had “corrupted” the irrigation system at the golf courses.
“Who would have thought clams would be a problem in the desert?” he said.
They will be redoing the irrigation system for one course and repurposing or turning the other course into something else.
The leading candidate right now is a sports complex with soccer fields, Soyka said. He has been talking to the City, County and other members of the community about this project.
“When we build something here, we want to make sure it is not just for our Fort Bliss residents, but our whole community,” he said.
Both courses are still functioning as golf courses and the tentative timetable has them breaking ground on the project in 2027, he said.
As with anyone in the Army, the big focus is always on readiness, Soyka said.
Fort Bliss is the “premier force projection platform in the Army,” Soyka said, with Biggs Army Airfield and the installation’s railhead playing important roles.
“As an Army, we try to play away games,” he said. “That means as an armor division (1st Armored Division), you need a railhead.
“You can load our tanks on a plane, but it takes a whole lot of plane,” Soyka added. “So the predominant way to move an armored brigade combat team is through that railhead.”
Fort Bliss is working on a major expansion of that railhead, thanks to El Paso’s congressional representatives, he said.
That expansion is about 25 percent completed and they expect it to be finished by the end of Fiscal Year 2026, Soyka said.
The goal is to be able to move an entire brigade combat team out of Fort Bliss in 96 hours, he said.
Biggs Army Airfield also contributes to Fort Bliss’ mission, Soyka said.
At one point, it was the seventh longest runway in the nation and was an alternate landing spot for the Space Shuttle, Soyka said.
“We have a great airfield,” Soyka said. “You can land any type of aircraft you can imagine here.”
Fort Bliss’ training area is slightly bigger than the state of Rhode Island with 1.2 million acres, Soyka said.
One of the most underrated and least understood missions of Fort Bliss is its role in mobilizing and demobilizing National Guard and Reserve troops, Soyka said.
“Every year, we mobilize and demobilize between 35,000 and 50,000 Reserve and National Guard soldiers as they deploy across the world,” he said.
That means they come to Fort Bliss for their final training before leaving to wherever they are deploying and then they return to Fort Bliss for their out-processing, Soyka said.
Fort Bliss is also supporting about 1,700 soldiers who are involved in the border mission, Soyka said. They deployed from other places and are here to support the Department of Homeland Security, he added.
This summer, a large migrant detention facility opened at Fort Bliss. As KTSM previously reported, it opened with the capacity for about 1,000 migrants with the capability of expanding to 5,000 at some point.
Soyka said the new migrant facility – called Camp East Montana – is “essentially a tenant here on Fort Bliss.”
“Our involvement, we helped to flatten some very bumpy desert into some flat desert and then the lease is with the Department of Homeland Security,” he said.
Soyka said that as Garrison commander his job is to make sure soldiers have “everything they need so they are ready to go, fight and win.”
That includes housing, ranges to train on and services that support soldiers and families, he said.
Soyka also urges members of the El Paso community to come out and visit the installation. He said they have been working on making it easier to get on post for civilians. You can click here to find out more about visiting Fort Bliss.
“This is an amazing job,” Soyka said. “I really feel I have the best job on Fort Bliss. I get to help people everyday. I believe that leaders should be servants of the people that they lead. It gives me the ability to help people everyday.”
Read: Read More