Maj. Gen. Joe Ryan, commanding general for the Army’s 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, provided updates about the Pohakuloa Training Area on Monday at an event held by the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce.
Ryan addressed upcoming events and changes taking place at PTA, as well as the relationship between the U.S. and China in the Pacific.
“We don’t want war, we want to deter war from happening,” Ryan said of U.S. and China relations. “But make no mistake, many of the ways we do that are through capability, posture, signaling and will. The will to go to war implies that should war be necessary, we must be ready to go fight it.”
Ryan addressed the role PTA plays in that readiness.
“Pohakuloa Training Area is the only place in the Hawaiian Islands where we can train to achieve our objectives and do whatever it is we need to do in land combat in this region of the world,” he said. “I can’t think of a future for the Army in Hawaii without Pohakuloa Training Area being very important.”
Roughly one-fifth of PTA is land that is leased by the state of Hawaii. That lease is set to expire in 2029, and Army officials hope to renew the agreement.
To stress the importance of transparency and showcase the need for the lease extension, PTA is hosting its annual Experience PTA Day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 20 and will offer the public a chance to learn more about training, land stewardship efforts and community relations programs taking place there.
“We are honored to be members of the community here. We are honored to serve our country, and are honored to serve the people of Hawaii and protect and defend them from various threats across the globe,” Ryan said. “Yes, April 20 is PTA Day, but any day can be PTA Day. Ask us, we would love to show people what PTA is all about.”
Ryan also addressed the spy balloon from China that appeared over the continental U.S., and the false alarm Hawaii recently experienced.
In March, a high-altitude balloon was spotted above Waimea, which turned out to be an experiment by Sierra-Nevada Corp. and World View demonstrating unmanned stratospheric communication capabilities.
While the incident was not a spy balloon, Ryan said the presence of such balloons is not a far-fetched notion due to the presence of sensitive military facilities in Hawaii.
“There could be surveillance balloons over the islands of Hawaii, too,” Ryan said but did not confirm, adding “there hasn’t been a physical threat associated with that type of activity.”
He did, however, warn of recent incidents that have taken place in the Pacific region involving China.
One such incident involved a fishing ship from the Philippines that a Chinese naval vessel shot at with a “military-grade laser,” forcing the Philippines ship to depart an area recognized as international waters.
“China is on an insidious path toward changing the international rules-based order that we’ve had here in the Pacific for over 75 years since the end of World War II, a rules-based order that was established to allow free and sovereign nations the opportunity to seek their own future, to seek their own path within their best interests,” Ryan said.
“It is a fine line between being a capable deterrent and between being provocative toward war, and that is the line we are trying to walk right now in this region with an increasingly aggressive China and an increasingly unpredictable China in this region of the world,” he said.
Ryan also addressed the upcoming change in leadership for PTA. Commander Lt. Col. Kevin Cronin will be leaving the Pacific region in June and will be heading to India for another assignment. He will be replaced by in-coming Commander Lt. Col. Tim Alvarado, who currently is stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in the U.S. Special Operations Command.
The change of command ceremony will take place in late June.
“He will pick up the ball and continue to carry it just as Kevin has,” Ryan said, adding in general “if there’s something we can do better, we’re all ears.”
Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitribune-herald.com.