HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii must do more if it wants to avoid cuts in military personnel through Army downsizing, according to the former leader of U.S. Army Pacific. ADVERTISING HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii must do more if it wants to
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii must do more if it wants to avoid cuts in military personnel through Army downsizing, according to the former leader of U.S. Army Pacific.
“If we want the military here, we need to show it,” said retired Lt. Gen. Frank Wiercinski, a member of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii’s Military Affairs Council. “And now is the time to do it.”
More support for training will be crucial as the Defense Department considers where it will reduce troops, Wiercinski said.
The Army in June said there was a potential for the loss of up to 19,800 soldiers and civilian workers on Oahu. With 30,035 family members, that would represent about 5 percent of Honolulu’s population.
The Army 2020 Force Structure Realignment report reviewed potential effects of downsizing at 30 installations.
The active-duty Army stands at 510,000 soldiers, down from 570,000. That will be reduced to 490,000 in a year, according to the Army. If sequestration resumes, the number could be 420,000 by 2019.
In an environment that Wiercinski calls “very difficult and very different,” even some former officers are calling for the Army cuts in Hawaii.
Al Frenzel of Makaha, a retired Army colonel, directs the Oahu Council for Army Downsizing, which supports turning over Army facilities and land to the state.
Most Army forces on Oahu are not strategically located because they do not have readily available airlift or sea lift, according to the council. Assets at Schofield Barracks and Wheeler Army Airfield and land at Makua “would greatly outweigh the short-term economic impact that will be experienced from the downsizing,” Frenzel wrote in a position paper.
Cathy Kropp, spokeswoman for the Army’s Installation Management Command/Army Environmental Command at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, said the Army has reviewed more than 110,000 realignment comments.
“It is only one piece of a variety of data that Army leaders will review before making force structure decisions,” Kropp said.
Communities will be able to offer additional comments during “listening sessions” between mid-November and March at the analyzed installations, she said.
