From Oahu Council for Army Downsizing
Subject of talk: Army Downsizing on Oahu — Information briefing, followed by discussion and Q&A
Speaker: Retired Army Colonel AL Frenzel, former U.S. Army War College Faculty Instructor, logistics and force restructuring specialist
Location: Waianae District Park, Multi-Purpose Room, 85-601 Farrington Hwy, Waianae (Oahu)
Time & date: 7:00-8:30 p.m., Tu, October 14, 2014
Colonel (retired) AL Frenzel will provide an overview of the Department of Defense's recently announced downsizing of 100,000 to 130,000* personnel stationed in 19 states, including Hawaii. Col. AL Frenzel is the director of the non-governmental agency, the Oahu Council for Army Downsizing (OCAD).
The OCAD supports and actively advocates for the downsizing of Army Forces on Oahu. The OCAD does not consider the bulk of the Army's forces on Oahu to be strategically located since these forces do not have readily available airlift or sealift to support their transport to anywhere in the Pacific as quickly as may be needed. Moreover, the OCAD believes the Army on Oahu lacks critically needed 'forced entry' capability to allow it to enter hostile environments, a capability already possessed by the US Marines presently on Oahu and throughout the Pacific. The OCAD believes taxpayers cannot afford to pay for redundant forces competing to do the same job and redundant, geographically isolated forces occupying critical lands and consuming valuable resources that are important to the State of Hawaii and the Hawaiian community.
The OCAD wants the people of Hawaii and Oahu to understand the goodness that can occur if the Army is downsized on Oahu in the quantities proposed by DoD. The OCAD believes the cuts proposed should occur in the near term and that the following bases and geographic areas be returned to the State of Hawaii via the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process: Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Army Airfield, Makua Valley, Dillingham Military Reservation, and Kolekole pass with unimpeded access on Lualualei Naval Road. The OCAD believes the DoD's recommendation for cuts provides a 'once-in-a-century' opportunity for Hawaii Nei; if military forces on Oahu are not cut during this round of force structure cuts, then nothing will change on Oahu militarily — there will never be another round of cuts like this for Hawaii in any of our lifetimes.
*130,000 mandated if FY16 sequestration is not delayed or cancelled.
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The states/bases on the chopping block are listed below. The political power base in the states other than Hawaii is huge compared to what Hawaii's freshman Senators and Congresspersons possess. Some naive folks might also believe the Army cuts won't happen; but the Quadrennial Defense Review 2014 and the DoD are locked in at cuts down to 450K — all DoD is trying to do now is fight the potential sequestration cuts down to 420K — they might succeed in this, but that's still a cut of 100,000 minimum.
Locations Nominated for Personnel Cuts
| Fort Bliss, Texas |
16,000 |
| Fort Bragg, North Carolina |
16,000 |
| Fort Campbell, Kentucky |
16,000 |
| Fort Carson, Colorado |
16,000 |
| Fort Drum, New York |
16,000 |
| Fort Hood, Texas |
16,000 |
| Fort Riley, Kansas |
16,000 |
| Fort Stewart, Georgia |
16,000 |
| Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA |
16,000 |
| USAG Hawaii (Schofield), HI |
16,000 |
| Fort Benning, Georgia |
10,800 |
| Fort Knox, Kentucky |
7,600 |
| Fort Sill, Oklahoma |
6,800 |
| Fort Polk, Louisiana |
6,500 |
| Joint Base San Antonio-Texas |
5,900 |
| Fort Wainwright, Alaska |
5,800 |
| Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri |
5,400 |
| JB Elmendorf-Richardson, AL |
5,300 |
| Fort Gordon, Georgia |
4,600 |
| Fort Belvoir, Virginia |
4,600 |
| Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD |
4,300 |
| Joint Base Langley-Eustis, VA |
4,200 |
| USAG Hawaii (Fort Shafter), HI |
3,800 |
| Fort Irwin, California |
3,600 |
| Fort Lee, Virginia |
3,600 |
| Fort Meade, Maryland |
3,500 |
| Fort Jackson, South Carolina |
3,100 |
| Fort Huachuca, Arizona |
2,700 |
| Fort Leavenworth, Kansas |
2,500 |
| Fort Rucker, Alabama |
2,500 |
Links:
Oahu Council for Army Downsizing
Oahu Army Downsizing with Col. (Retired) AL Frenzel [Think Tech Hawaii] (43 min video) Aug 18, 2014
AL Frenzel Unveils Plan for Hawaii to Gain Handsomely from Army Downsizing [Hawaii Political Info] Jul 29, 2014
