Chet Edwards For Congress

July 11, 2005
Edwards Calls For Full Utilization of Fort Hood

KWTX Channel 10
By News Staff

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, who represented Fort Hood until Congressional Districts were redrawn in 2003, urged Base Realignment and Closure Commission members Monday to “consider the common-sense approach of fully utilizing Ft. Hood,” as a regional hearing on the future of Texas military installations got underway Monday in San Antonio.

“The Department of Defense's BRAC analysis ranked Ft. Hood as having the Army's third highest military value,” Edwards said.

“Given that high rating, I hope this Commission would consider one fundamental question: ‘Wouldn't it make more sense to fully utilize the Army's only two-division installation, Ft. Hood, rather than downsizing it by 7000 soldiers, thus requiring hundreds of millions of dollars to be spent at Ft. Carson to build new facilities already at Ft. Hood?’”

The Department of Defense wants to move thousands of soldiers from Fort Hood to Fort Carson, after assigning 5,000 troops to the post last year as part of the effort to shift from a division-driven to a brigade-based force structure.

In anticipation of the growth, Gov. Rick Perry authorized $20.5 million for infrastructure improvements around the post.

But under the Pentagon’s recommendations, Fort Hood would be home base to about 41,000 troops, 8,000 to 9,000 fewer than the 50,000 the post can accommodate.

The Pentagon’s plans for Fort Hood are based on 2003 troop strength estimates and did not take the 5,000 new troops into account, Edwards says.

The plans also overlook the opening of 39,000 acres for training, lawmakers say.

The Pentagon says Texas would gain more than 6,100 military and civilian jobs under the plan to close and realign 180 military bases nationwide, but after scrutinizing the proposal, some Texas officials are arguing at the hearing in San Antonio that the plan actually would cost the state at least 3,000 military jobs and scores more in civilian jobs.

Under some scenarios the loss of troops could be as much as 5,000, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, told commissioners Monday.

The hearing drew U.S. senators and congressmen from Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Gov. Rick Perry also attended.

Hundreds of people from the Texarkana-area alone showed up to argue to save their Red River Army Depot and Lone Star Army Ammunition plant.

They argued the statistics on which the Pentagon relied for recommending their closures are outdated.
They say Red River is doing much of the repair work on Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles damaged in the Iraq war.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, concurred, saying the data the commission was working with "bear no relationship to what's going on on the ground at Red River today."

PENTAGON RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TEXAS BASES CLOSING:

• Brooks City Base, San Antonio (2,923 jobs; 1,297 military, 1,268 civilian, 358 contractor).
• Red River Army Depot, Texarkana (2,500 jobs; 9 military, 2,491 civilian).
• Naval Station, Ingleside (2,218 jobs; 1,901 military; 260 civilian).
• Defense Finance and Accounting Service, San Antonio (335 jobs; 32 military, 303 civilian).
• Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, Texarkana (149 jobs; 2 military, 18 civilian, 129 contractor).
• Army National Guard Reserve Center (Hondo Pass), El Paso (106 military jobs).
• Army National Guard Reserve Center, New Braunfels (106 military jobs).
• Army National Guard Reserve Center No. 2, Dallas (90 military jobs).
• Army National Guard Reserve Center, Ellington (59 jobs; 14 military, 45 civilian).
• Army National Guard Reserve Center, California Crossing (47 military jobs).
• Army National Guard Reserve Center, Marshall (16 jobs; 15 military, 1 civilian).
• Army National Guard Reserve Center, Lufkin (10 military jobs).
• Navy Reserve Center, Lubbock (7 military jobs).
• Navy Reserve Center, Orange (11 military jobs).
• Army Reserve Center No. 2, Houston (2 military jobs).

GAINS:

• Fort Bliss, El Paso (11,501 jobs; 11,354 military, 147 civilian).
• Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio (9,364 jobs; 7,648 military, 1,624 civilian, 92 contractor).
• Dyess Air Force Base, Abilene (374 jobs; 310 military, 64 civilian).
• Carswell ARS, Naval Station Fort Worth (112 jobs; 8 military, 104 civilian).
• Laughlin Air Force Base, Del Rio (182 jobs, 102 military, 80 civilian).
• Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, Fort Worth (314 jobs; 276 military, 36 civilian, 2 contractor).
• Randolph Air Force Base, San Antonio (182 jobs; 412 military jobs lost, 531 civilian jobs gained, 63 contractors gained).

REALIGNMENTS

• Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, (2,624 jobs lost; 2,468 military, 156 civilian).
• Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, (3,140 jobs lost, 2,254 military, 770 civilian, 116 contractor).
• Naval Air Station Corpus Christi (1,025 jobs lost; 926 military, 89 civilian, 10 contractor).
• Fort Hood Army Post, Killeen, (191 jobs lost; 73 military, 118 civilian—not counting plans to shift thousands of 4th Infantry Division soldiers to Fort Carson)
• Corpus Christi Army Depot (92 civilian jobs lost).
• Ellington Field Air Guard Station (3 civilian jobs lost).

TOTALS FOR TEXAS:

• Military jobs lost: 25,722.
• Civilian jobs lost: 6,695.
• Contractor jobs lost: 513.
• Military jobs gained: 35,560.
• Civilian jobs gained: 3,520.
• Net jobs gained: 6,150.

PAST BASE CLOSURES SINCE 1988

• Galveston Naval Station, Galveston, 1988.
• Bergstrom Air Force Base, Austin, 1991.
• Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, 1991.
• Chase Field Naval Air Station, Beeville, 1991.
• Dallas Naval Air Station, Dallas, 1993.
• Kelly Air Force Base, San Antonio, 1995.
• Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock, 1995.

BRAC TIMELINE
July 11: Texas hearing in San Antonio before members of the Base Realignment and Closing Commission. The commissioners are appointed to do their own research of the Pentagon's recommendations and to make their own recommendations to the president.

Sept. 8: Deadline for BRAC commission to send its recommendations to President Bush.

Sept. 23: Deadline for Bush to either approve or disapprove of list.

Oct. 20: Deadline for list to be revised by the BRAC commission if Mr. Bush disapproves of it.

Nov. 7: Deadline for Bush to certify the BRAC commission list and submit it to Congress, which has 45 days to pass motion of disapproval or the commission's list becomes law.

April 15, 2006: Termination of the BRAC commission's authority.