[Vision2020] Making Room

[Tom Hansen]

"In a September 2007 analysis of the reorganization, nine installations 
visited by GAO analysts had larger personnel growth projections than those 
used by the Pentagon to develop construction funding requests.

In another report released in late January, GAO said the Army has failed 
to tabulate health care and dependent education costs, which auditors said 
will likely exceed $2.5 billion."

>From the March 31, 2008 edition of the Army Times -

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Making room

Who’s moving, reflagging or activating to accommodate the Army’s new 
troops 
By Jim Tice - jtice at militarytimes.com

About one-third of the Army’s units, 380,000 soldiers and family members, 
and more than 300 camps and stations will soon feel the effects of the 
service’s largest organizational change since World War II.

President Bush approved a 74,000-soldier increase in Army manning a year 
ago, but it wasn’t until two months ago that he gave a nod to the 
stationing and force structure changes that will support that increase.

In announcing the changes, Gen. Dick Cody, vice chief of staff, said the 
restationing plan not only builds on the manning increase, but also 
supports the base closure and realignment mandate of 2005, the strategic 
realignment of overseas forces and the modular redesign of tactical forces.

The force expansion approved by Bush in January 2007 will add 65,000 
soldiers to the active component, 8,201 to the National Guard and 1,010 to 
the Army Reserve.

The major goal is to reach 547,200 active-duty soldiers, either by 
September 2012 as indicated in the budget, or two years earlier as sought 
by Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff.

The Army’s end strength is about 520,000 soldiers as of mid-March.

Service leaders will use the additional troops to add six infantry brigade 
combat teams to the current inventory of 42 ground maneuver brigades; 
create eight additional combat support brigades in the U.S.; and delay the 
Europe drawdown by two years.

Under the base closure and realignment mandate of 2005, the Army was 
directed to move the 1st Armored Division from Germany to Fort Bliss, 
Texas, and the 1st Infantry Division from Germany to Fort Riley, Kan., and 
Fort Knox, Ky., by the end of fiscal 2011. 

Those moves will proceed as planned, in terms of headquarters and colors, 
but the Army will stand up two new heavy brigades in Germany during 2008 
and 2009 to maintain a four-brigade ground maneuver force in Europe for 
the next four to five years.

The two new brigade combat teams to be stationed at Grafenwoehr and 
Baumholder will be moved from Germany to Fort Bliss and White Sands 
Missile Range, N.M., in 2012-13, according to Cody.

When the dust finally settles on this temporary condition, there will be 
two maneuver brigades stationed in Europe: the 2nd Stryker Cavalry 
Regiment at Vilseck, Germany, and the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team 
at Vicenza, Italy.

This will leave 32,000 soldiers and Army civilians in Germany, and 4,600 
in Italy.

The Army also wants to establish and relocate two maneuver enhancement 
brigades — one from Fort Irwin, Calif., to Fort Richardson, Alaska, and 
one from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, to Fort Drum, N.Y.

When these moves are completed, Fort Drum will have an operating force of 
20,000, nearly 8,000 more than in 2003.

The restationing plan calls for two infantry brigade combat teams each to 
be built at Fort Carson, Colo.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Fort Bliss, Texas.

These installations will experience the largest personnel growth in the 
Army, adding more than 21,300 soldiers in the next five years, according 
to the transformation blueprint.

That same plan also calls for a major increase in combat support 
capabilities, with eight military police, engineer, maneuver enhancement, 
fires, air defense, sustainment and surveillance brigades to be added to 
the Army’s inventory of support brigades.

Installations targeted for these new units include Schofield Barracks; 
Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; Fort Bliss; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Lewis, Wash.; 
and Fort Polk, La.

Nearly half of the soldiers in the active Army’s manning increase of 
65,000 are being distributed to combat support and combat service support 
units in the U.S. and overseas.

The changes will generate population increases of anywhere from a few 
hundred to several thousand at most installations.

The Army estimates the reorganization will generate more than $70 billion 
in spending on construction projects, to include 66 child-development 
centers, 69,000 barracks units, 4,100 government-funded family quarters 
and 23 standardized brigade combat team complexes.

In reports issued late last year and early this year, the Government 
Accountability Office has been sharply critical of Army funding estimates, 
claiming they are understated and based on faulty data.

In a September 2007 analysis of the reorganization, nine installations 
visited by GAO analysts had larger personnel growth projections than those 
used by the Pentagon to develop construction funding requests.

In another report released in late January, GAO said the Army has failed 
to tabulate health care and dependent education costs, which auditors said 
will likely exceed $2.5 billion. 

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"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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