Texas Army Installations To Lose 4,900 Soldiers In Drawdown

Although Texas Army installations collectively suffered major losses in Thursday’s announcement of a drawdown of 40,000 soldiers nationwide, many say it could have been worse. Nearly 4,900 Army soldiers will depart three posts in Texas by the end of FY2018 as a result of planned military cuts. When the reductions are made to installations nationwide, the Army will be left with a total of 450,000 soldiers.

The Army announced the drawdown of troops in response to budget constraints. The cuts will not only affect soldiers, but also civilian workers at the installations.

Most communities in which the affected Army posts are located have been preparing for these types of incidents for years, according to John Crutchfield (left), president and CEO of the Greater Killeen Chamber of Commerce, and Ken Cox (right), executive director of the Heart of Texas Defense Alliance (HOTDA). Fort Hood, located in Killeen, saw a reduction of nearly 10 percent of its soldiers as a result of Thursday’s announcement.

A breakdown of the loss of personnel at Texas bases by the end of FY2018, according to Lt. Col. Joe Buccino in the Army’s Office of the Chief of Public Affairs includes:

• Fort Bliss, located in both Texas and New Mexico, will lose 1,219 soldiers;
• Fort Hood, one of the largest active Army bases, will lose 3,350 soldiers; and
• Joint Base San Antonio, which includes Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, will lose 329 soldiers.

Buccino said in an email that the number of civilians to be lost is not yet available. An analysis on civilian reductions at the installations is “ongoing” and will be released once it is fully developed, he said. Some sources are reporting that a total of 17,000 civilians could be cut from Army bases nationwide.

The troop drawdown came as no surprise. The Army has been discussing a reduction in active-duty soldiers over the last year. At the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan engagements, the Army had 570,000 active-duty personnel. The plan was to reduce that number to 450,000. The Army whittled that number down to near 490,000 by reducing personnel overseas and reducing the number of “floating” soldiers who were not assigned to a specific base. The remaining 40,000 will now come from soldiers stationed at particular installations such as the three in Texas.

In some military communities nationwide, anticipation of the drawdown of troops was seen as being as painful as recent rounds of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). Every time BRAC rolls around, communities that are home to military bases find themselves on pins and needles, hoping against hope that their military facilities will not be among those marked for closure.

Both BRAC and military and civilian personnel layoffs can be devastating to a local community. Whether one solider or 1,000 soldiers, each has an impact on the community and the local and regional economy, so each is important.

Fort Hood took a big hit with its 3,500 soldiers who will be lost. But it has some advantages that may have kept the cuts from being even deeper. For instance, Fort Hood is big. It includes 225,000 acres, making it a perfect location for training of a large number of military men and women. It is currently home to more than 40,000 soldiers. It has extensive rail equipment to allow access to ports. “It is the largest single-site employer in the state of Texas,” said Crutchfield. The chamber executive said the last economic impact analysis, conducted in 2012, showed Fort Hood contributed $25 billion per year to the economy statewide, and $16 billion locally. He called the local military installation “a good value to the Army.” Prior to the drawdown announcement, Crutchfield was confident his community would be able to deal with the impending cuts. “We’re in pretty good shape to deal with whatever happens,” he said.

Fort Bliss didn’t take as big a hit as others of the 30 installations targeted for cutbacks in personnel. Only a little over 1,200 soldiers will be lost at the El Paso post. With the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) spending $6 billion on infrastructure at Fort Bliss over the last 10 years and spending $1 billion on a new Beaumont replacement hospital, it was not likely DOD would order cutbacks that would infringe on the installation’s mission.

In fact, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso said it could have been worse. He credited the local community as the catalyst for ensuring that both the Army and DOD understood “what a value Fort Bliss is.”

That essentially is part of the strategic plan of HOTDA, said its executive director Cox. HOTDA is one of about 30 such organizations that support military installations and military families in their respective communities. “There is a strong bond between (military) families and the community,” he said, with 75 percent of those assigned to the post living in the community. Even when there are troop cutbacks, Cox said many will stay in the area “because they like it here.”

HOTDA ensures that the seven cities and three counties it represents work together as a community to support soldiers and their families “while they are serving and while they transition [out of the military],” said Cox.

Cox said HOTD provides “tremendous” troop support for all of its member cities and communities. He said HOTDA works with both Fort Hood and the community to make certain that needs are met and concerns are addressed. In particular, HOTDA ensures that when the Department of Defense looks at Fort Hood during BRAC or troop drawdowns, “they see the impact it will have.”

The HOTDA executive said that because so many of the Fort Hood troops and their families live in the surrounding communities, there is a significant impact on those communities whether the number of troops increases or decreases. The alliance is there making strategic decisions and doing planning that ensure success both for the Army post and for the community. HOTDA’s support of the troops is not just extended to active duty troops, such as its work with local Workforce Solutions agency to encourage hiring of veterans and their families. The organization’s mantra, said Cox, is that the community’s support for its military personnel does not have an end date, even if a soldier leaves the military. “You’re a soldier for life,” he said.

The impact of the loss of troops at Army posts nationwide will vary. And, although Texas posts together suffered some of the deepest cuts, their communities are rallying to ensure that the impact on both the community and its soldiers and their families is minimal.

This story originally published in Texas Government Insider, a publication of Strategic Partnerships, Inc.