THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
The Army is getting even bigger and Fort Carson will be growing right along with it.
Senior Army officials have decided to send a fifth combat brigade to the Mountain Post by 2011 - bringing the total number of soldiers based at Fort Carson to nearly 30,000 - more than doubling the base's troop strength since January 2006.
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody briefed White House officials on Monday and made the stationing announcement early Wednesday morning.
Fort Carson is already slated to be the home of all four brigades of the 4th Infantry Division, plus the 10th Special Forces Group, a stationing decision announced in 2005 that would bring the total number of soldiers to roughly 26,000.
Wednesday's announcement means the post also will receive one of six new brigades being formed to boost the Army's end strength by some 65,000 new soldiers. A brigade totals about 3,600 soldiers, although its support personnel swell that number closer to 5,000 soldiers in all.
Faced with having nearly every combat brigade in the Army either in Iraq or Afghanistan, or taking a year's rest from deployment, Congress authorized the Army this year to start expanding to 570,000 troops - adding six more combat brigades, plus support personnel.
"We looked at every post, camp and station in terms of their growth potential," Cody told the Army Times newspaper on Wednesday. "We assessed them in terms of their training capability, the individual training ranges, the small unit and large unit maneuver ranges, as well as their airfields, their live and virtual training facilities." Additional brigades will be activated or sent to: Fort Hood, Texas; White Sands Missile Range, N.M.; Fort Bliss, Texas; and Fort Stewart, Ga. Colorado lawmakers welcomed the stationing announcement Wednesday, saying it would bring even more economic development to the region.
The unanswered question Wednesday is whether the Army's decision to send even more troops to Fort Carson will overwhelm congressional opposition to letting the Army acquire another 414,000 acres around the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in Las Animas County. Fort Carson planners have argued in land-use plans that they need about 100,000 acres in training space at Pinon Canyon for every brigade based at Fort Carson - even though the Army has only used Pinon Canyon about once a year since acquiring it in 1985.
The Army's announcement coincided with Congress' recent completion of a massive 2008 budget bill that contains a one-year ban on the Army spending any money on the controversial expansion project. A coalition of ranchers opposed to the expansion persuaded Reps. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and John Salazar, D-Colo., to put the ban in the new budget and Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., did so in the Senate bill.
"I have had many conversations with (Army officials) about this additional brigade," Ken Salazar told reporters Wednesday, while welcoming the basing announcement. "They have understood that this decision is not linked in any way or shape to the future expansion of Pinon Canyon."
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., has supported the Army's plan to expand Pinon Canyon and he said putting more troops at Fort Carson will require "the necessary training facilities."
"Today's announcement by the Army is nothing short of great news for Southern Colorado," Allard said. "The news of a new (brigade) at Fort Carson also carries with it the responsibility of ensuring that these soldiers are provided with the best possible facilities to fulfill their mission."
More troops means an even bigger surge of money into the Fort Carson area. Currently, the Army has close to a $1 billion building campaign under way at the Mountain Post, adding a new headquarters building for the 4th Infantry Division, plus a series of "rolling pin" barracks for soldiers, as well as other training facilities.
Even so, John Salazar, whose 3rd District contains the Pinon Canyon site, said the Army announcement does not change the unwillingness of area ranchers to lose their land to the Army.
"While Fort Carson's resources make it the right choice for the new brigade, I continue to maintain my position on the provision to halt expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site," he said in a statement Wednesday.
Lon Robertson, a rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said the Army announcement would obviously create even more pressure on lawmakers to approve the expansion plan.
"It makes me wonder if there is any limit on how many more soldiers Colorado Springs is willing to take," Robertson said. "We know from the past that the Army will promise anything and say whatever they have to, to get people to go along."
©1996-2007The Pueblo Chieftain Online