Leaders question impact of Fort Benning cuts on region at forum

A consulting firm looking at the impact of Army cuts at Fort Benning should consider how the troops draw down will hurt the federal government, the mayor of Columbus suggested to the Matrix Design Group Thursday at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center.

Sponsored by the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce, the 6 p.m. meeting that included about 30 business leaders and post employees was aimed at educating the public on the Army’s plans to reduce its force from 490,000 to 450,000 soldiers. In a move to reduce brigade combat teams, the 3rd Armored Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division has been cut to about 1,050 soldiers to create the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment Task Force. The cuts were part of the 2011 Budget Control Act or sequestration.

When the study is completed later this year, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson is concerned that the message to the federal government should also include the impact on the government.

“It seems to me that how much this may harm our community is not terrible persuasive to the federal jurisdiction trying to determine what its best interest is,” Tomlinson said. “Obviously, it’s going to hurt every jurisdiction having this kind of issue. As you consider all this information when you go into negotiations, which it seems like it is, maybe we need another narrative of how much this will hurt them.”

Sal Nodjomian, project manager and executive vice president of the Niceville, Fla., company, noted that a general testified Thursday that he needs 200,000 more troops.

“We are telling the Army what they already know,” Nodjomian said. “They don’t want to do this. They got a bill to pay. It’s really up to the garrison and mission commanders to put a mission face on it. We will do what we can to integrate that into our report. They know it’s the Army’s story to tell.”

Officials said the cuts at Fort Benning were projected at 3,402 soldiers but that number is now closer to 2,800. About 1,050 of those soldiers left in December and another 1,750 are slated to leave by the summer.

Although troops have been reduced, officials said the post still has about 65,000 soldiers each year for training. Some are on the post a few days while other for a few weeks.

The region, which includes counties in the Valley Partnership, has almost 47,000 veterans.

Owen Ditchfield, a resident of south Columbus who retired from the Army, said veterans in the region should be a selling point for industry.

“We have a disciplined, trained, happy workforce ready to go to work,” he said. “To me, that should be a major selling point.”

Gary Jones, vice president of military affairs for the chamber, said officials are working with entities in Washington and moving forward with plans to potentially have mission growth at Fort Benning. He said some shortfalls were found at the post. He discussed what it would cost to correct it.

“Recently, we received $2.9 million,” Jones said. “We have another program designed to make Benning more attractive as the Army decides to move other units here. To move them to the military, the community would received that. We are approaching this as an entity as, yes, this hurts us. By the way, look what great opportunity we are giving you because we are going to have to put troops in places and we are starting to produce some positive results already. We are having active dialogue with political leadership in terms of asking the Department of Defense very hard direct questions to get information back. We are developing a program to grow the mission and at the same time asking them I need you to validate what really happened here.”

The town hall meeting resumes from 10 a.m. to noon Friday at the Trade Center.

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 9:31 PM with the headline "Leaders question impact of Fort Benning cuts on region at forum."