The Second Great Depression was not kind to the military reservations surrounding the White Sands Missile Range. The drop in federal funding left them surviving off local resources alone. Many soldiers chose to go home, often taking whatever supplies or weapons they could carry with them. Some were already affiliated with the local gangs and drug cartels, and sold various military supplies to them. By the time open street fighting hit the nearby Borderplex cities, Fort Bliss had shrunken to something not much larger than a skeleton security force trying to secure what weapons and supplies it still had. While also searching for the traitors in their own ranks still selling supplies and weapons to the enemy. Holloman Air Force Base had similar issues and only retained enough people to fly a handful of aircraft at a time, most of which were unarmed drones. They did what they could to help the Borderplex fight the gangs and drug cartels, but their reach was severely limited.