Austin, TX
Army G-9, Team Bliss open DOD's first 3D-printed barracks
Two of three newly opened 3D-printed barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas, Jan. 29, 2025. Lt. Gen. David Wilson, deputy Army chief of staff, G-9 (Installations), and Sgt. Maj. Michael Perry, his senior enlisted adviser, joined 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss Garrison leaders for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony. They are the first 3D-printed structures to comply with the Defense Department’s updated Unified Facilities Criteria, a mandate updated annually that provides construction guidance DOD-wide and now reflects standards for additive manufacturing, or 3D-printed, facilities.
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FORT BLISS, Texas — The “Home of America’s Tank Division” now houses the Defense Department’s first 3D-printed barracks.
Lt. Gen. David Wilson, deputy Army chief of staff, G-9 (Installations), and Sgt. Maj. Michael Perry, his senior enlisted adviser, joined 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss Garrison leaders for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony on Jan. 29, 2025.
The facilities on West Bliss are one of two new sites at Fort Bliss featuring this innovative military infrastructure. They are the first 3D-printed structures to comply with the Defense Department’s updated Unified Facilities Criteria, a mandate updated annually that provides construction guidance DOD-wide and now reflects standards for additive manufacturing, or 3D-printed, facilities.
According to ICON, an Austin, Texas, company that spearheaded the project, the buildings each encompass 5,700 square feet. When construction began in 2024, these barracks were the largest planned 3D-printed structures in the Western Hemisphere.
An example of the facilities in one of the new 3D-printed barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas, Jan. 29, 2025. According to ICON, an Austin, Texas, company that spearheaded the project, the buildings each encompass 5,700 square feet. When construction began in 2024, these barracks were the largest planned 3D-printed structures in the Western Hemisphere.
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An example of the facilities in one of the new 3D-printed barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas, Jan. 29, 2025. According to ICON, an Austin, Texas, company that spearheaded the project, the buildings each encompass 5,700 square feet. When construction began in 2024, these barracks were the largest planned 3D-printed structures in the Western Hemisphere.
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In total, three buildings were opened at Fort Bliss: two in the Pershing Heights area and one at Camp McGregor on the Fort Bliss Training Complex in New Mexico.
The project was completed with assistance from the Fort Bliss Garrison Directorate of Public Works and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who were essential in ensuring the safety certifications of these privately built structures.
The newly opened facilities will initially house troops deploying to Fort Bliss in support of the installation’s Mobilization Force Generation Installation mission. Fort Bliss processes and trains approximately 70,000 service members annually, with support from Army Reserve and National Guard units that deploy to Fort Bliss for annual rotations.
The new barracks at Fort Bliss can house up to 56 Soldiers per building. The Pershing Heights facilities will be first used by the 382nd Military Police Detachment, an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts, which will be heading to Fort Bliss in support of the MFGI mission.
Army leaders, stakeholders and guests tour one of three new 3D-printed barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas, Jan. 29, 2025. According to ICON, an Austin, Texas, company that spearheaded the project, the buildings each encompass 5,700 square feet. When construction began in 2024, these barracks were the largest planned 3D-printed structures in the Western Hemisphere.
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The 3D-printing, or additive manufacturing, process begins with designing the facility using computer-aided design (CAD) software. The barracks design was then virtually sliced into horizontal layers and vertically rejoined.
The barracks were built with ICON’s Vulcan printer, a five-ton, gantry-style 3D printer that stands almost 16 feet tall and 47 feet wide. The machine uses a proprietary concrete-based material called Lavacrete, which can be tailored to local environmental conditions, including humidity and temperature, ensuring optimal performance and aesthetic appeal.
Wilson served with the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss from 2008 to 2010 as the 121st Brigade Support Battalion commander shortly after the division moved its headquarters from Ansbach, Germany, to El Paso, Texas.
He recalled the borderland as “one of the warmest and most welcoming communities I had ever been a part of in my 38 years of service, both as an enlisted Soldier and a commissioned officer.”
(From right) Col. Brendan Gallagher, Fort Bliss garrison commander; U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar; Lt. Gen. David Wilson, deputy Army chief of staff, G-9 (Installations); and Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss commanding general, formally open the Defense Department’s first 3D-printed barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas, Jan. 29, 2025. The facilities will initially house troops deploying to Fort Bliss in support of the installation’s Mobilization Force Generation Installation mission. Fort Bliss processes and trains approximately 70,000 service members annually, with support from Army Reserve and National Guard units that deploy to Fort Bliss for annual rotations. The new barracks at Fort Bliss can house up to 56 soldiers per building. The Pershing Heights facilities will be first used by the 382nd Military Police Detachment, an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts, which will be heading to Fort Bliss in support of the MFGI mission.
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Lt. Gen. David Wilson, deputy Army chief of staff, G-9 (Installations), speaks at the opening of the Defense Department’s first 3D-printed barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas, Jan. 29, 2025. “Fort Bliss is not only a military installation; it’s a cornerstone of our nation’s defense and a symbol of resilience, strength, and enduring commitment to our nation—a place of growth and transformation,” Wilson said. “This post has evolved with the times, embracing new technologies, new strategies, and new ways of serving our country. So, it’s fitting that we gather here today to open new barracks that embody the same spirit of evolution and progress.”
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Col. Brendan Gallagher, Fort Bliss garrison commander, speaks at the opening of the Defense Department’s first 3D-printed barracks at Fort Bliss, Texas, Jan. 29, 2025. “This is not just another barrack – this is the largest 3D-printed barracks ever and it is among the largest 3D-printed structures ever in the world,” Gallagher said. “It clearly and visibly shows that Fort Bliss is continuing to lead the way in innovation for our Army. We believe this represents the cutting edge of innovation and reflects technology that will shape the future for Fort Bliss and hopefully many other installations.”
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The Army G-9 oversees Army housing, military construction and infrastructure investment, child care, energy and water security, resilience and sustainability, installation environmental management and stewardship, and other installation-related concerns.
“The great senator Robert Francis Kennedy once said, ‘Do not look at things and wonder why, dream new ideas and say ‘why not?’” Wilson said. “We’re here today because many people dreamed of new ideas and said ‘why not,’ and that’s why we’re delivering this state-of-the-art facility to the Army today.
“Fort Bliss is not only a military installation; it’s a cornerstone of our nation’s defense and a symbol of resilience, strength, and enduring commitment to our nation—a place of growth and transformation. This post has evolved with the times, embracing new technologies, new strategies, and new ways of serving our country,” he said. “So, it’s fitting that we gather here today to open new barracks that embody the same spirit of evolution and progress.”
Texas is a land that revels in its idiosyncratic history and associated iconography. On bar signs, brand logos, T-shirts, and tattoo sleeves, the Western-outfitted cowboy and land-roping barbed wire feature heavily. These tangled symbols aren’t easily sorted politically, but when it comes to talking about the Texan past, more often than not, that past is associated with conservative, right-leaning political values.
The resilient trail of leftist ideologies that David Griscom traces through the state’s history in The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South aim to trouble that assumption. The author’s debut work doesn’t craft an idealized ancestral politic that left-leaning Texans can saunter on home to, but instead lassos the many worker-led movements that’ve impacted Texas history into a traceable path, complicating simple assumptions about the Lone Star State and its people and crafting a loosely tethered intergenerational community of Texas radicals.
In his pages, Griscom attempts to reassociate cowboy individualism with cowboy solidarity in the strikes of late 1800s, and the rural, tough-living pride of said barbed wire with property-hungry landowners that strangled the open range, despite resistance from fence-cutting cowpokes, farmers, and neighbors.
Following these fence-cutters through the populist movement, labor unions, and socialists, Griscom drops in on different casts of characters each cut in the rugged shape of Texas who face variations of the same struggle. Though they differ in ideology and approach, these charismatic speakers and movement leaders grapple with the same temptations of political power and infighting. Griscom does not shy away from interrogating the pitfalls of these movements – particularly the racism and misogyny that manage to transcend solidarity more often than not – and the backstabbing dance of courting imagined moderates in a plea for reelection. The Brotherhood of Timber Workers and some German socialists prove to be exceptions to these common drawbacks, Griscom reveals.
The author’s debut work doesn’t craft an idealized ancestral politic that left-leaning Texans can saunter on home to, but instead lassos the many worker-led movements that’ve impacted Texas history into a traceable path.
As staunchly as conservatives want to turn the wagon around, liberals can fix their eyes on the horizon too closely. In an introductory analysis of recent Democratic defeats in Texas, the writer argues that colloquial assumptions about history deeply impact contemporary campaigns and grassroots organizing. No modern movement is reinventing the wheel, and moving forward with a knowledge of the successes and missteps that came before could embolden today’s organizers. As Texas once led the country in socialist party sign-ups, the Houston chapter remains the organization’s largest branch and, as Griscom notes, the Texas AFL-CIO was the first statewide labor association to advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza. The legacy of collective movements and outspoken groups persists in Texas, even when the overarching narrative doesn’t celebrate them.
Unique though it may be, Texas is also something of a microcosm, a laboratory, and a weather beacon for the politics and culture that ripple throughout the United States – a fact that Griscom, a writer and podcaster for Jacobin and host of Left Reckoning, knows well. A return to the past has been the great call of the political right in America for the past decade, and its leaders have revised and reshaped that past to suit their current intentions. As Griscom writes, recalling Texas’ rich and undertaught liberalist history makes it “difficult for the GOP to remake the state in its own image completely.” As Texas leads the country in enacting conservative policies in education, reproductive rights, and voting legislation, it stands to reason that muddying its narrative can remind other states to look backward for ideas in imagining a radical future.
Griscom is clear-eyed in his introduction about this 177-page primer being a cursory introduction to the history of leftist movements in Texas, much less the history of Texas politics as a whole. But for those who have felt excluded by the mythologizing of Texas’ past, it serves as a galvanizing read for further education and collective action.
The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South
By David Griscom
OR Books
This article appears in April 10 • 2026.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Thirteen Texas cities were listed as the most delinquent on debt in the United States.
Financial resource outlet WalletHub recently compared proprietary user data in the 100 largest U.S. cities to find where people were having the most difficulty paying their bills.
“Being delinquent on debt payments can cause a lot of harm to your credit score, and late payments will remain on your credit report for seven years,” WalletHub said. “People who are delinquent on any debt should try to get current as quickly as possible in order to minimize credit score damage and avoid other consequences like additional late fees, closed accounts, or lawsuits.”
The data showed the Texas city that struggled the most was Laredo, which ranked No. 8 nationally. Laredo had a total score of 72.52 out of 100, with 18.31% of people being loan balance delinquent in Q4 of 2025.
“People in some cities will have a much harder time catching up on delinquent debt payments than others, though,” WalletHub said.
Nationally, the No. 1 city with the most delinquent debt was Detroit, Michigan, which had residents delinquent on 15.7% of all their loans and lines of credit. Detroit residents were also delinquent on 20.2% of their entire debt, according to the study’s data.
Other Texas cities in the top 20 included:
No. 11 – Garland, TX
- Total Score: 68.11
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 13.42%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 13.91%
No. 13 – El Paso, TX
- Total Score: 65.83
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 12.86%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 14.30%
No. 18 – Arlington, TX
- Total Score: 63.15
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 12.87%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 13.35%
No. 20 – Lubbock, TX
- Total Score: 61.07
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 12.71%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 12.96%
Other Texas cities in the top 100 included:
No. 26 – San Antonio, TX
- Total Score: 58.59
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 12.05%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 13.50%
No. 32 – Fort Worth, TX
- Total Score: 55.09
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 11.96%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 12.47%
No. 39 – Houston, TX
- Total Score: 50.71
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 12.43%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 9.92%
No. 47 – Corpus Christi, TX
- Total Score: 46.79
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 10.72%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 12.21%
No. 52 – Irving, TX
- Total Score: 44.37
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 11.56%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 9.57%
No. 68 – Dallas, TX
- Total Score: 38.36
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 11.86%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 6.83%
No. 83 – Plano, TX
- Total Score: 30.81
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 10.79%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 6.46%
No. 90 – Austin, TX
- Total Score: 21.40
- Percentage of Tradelines Delinquent in Q4 2025: 9.56%
- Percentage of Loan Balance Delinquent in Q4 2025: 5.80%
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ABC Kite Fest, a beloved annual tradition in Austin, Texas, has announced the final details for its upcoming event on April 11th in Zilker Park. As the largest and longest-running kite festival of its kind, the one-day celebration will feature kite flying demonstrations, live music, food trucks, and a variety of family-friendly activities.
Why it matters
The ABC Kite Fest has been a cherished part of the Austin community for decades, drawing thousands of locals and visitors each year to enjoy the colorful displays of kites in the sky above Zilker Park. The festival celebrates the city’s vibrant outdoor culture and provides a fun, affordable day of entertainment for all ages.
The details
This year’s ABC Kite Fest will feature professional kite flying demonstrations, with expert kite pilots showcasing their skills and techniques throughout the day. In addition to the kite flying, the event will also include live music performances, a variety of food trucks offering local cuisine, and activity booths with games and crafts for children.
- ABC Kite Fest will take place on April 11, 2026 in Zilker Park, Austin, Texas.
The players
ABC Kite Fest
An annual kite festival in Austin, Texas that is the largest and longest-running of its kind.
Zilker Park
A popular urban park in Austin, Texas that hosts the ABC Kite Fest each year.
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What’s next
Tickets for the ABC Kite Fest are available for purchase online, and the event is free and open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own kites or purchase them on-site to participate in the festivities.
The takeaway
The ABC Kite Fest is a beloved annual tradition that celebrates Austin’s vibrant outdoor culture and provides a fun, affordable day of entertainment for the whole family. The festival’s return to Zilker Park is sure to be a highlight of the spring season in the city.
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