Editorial: D.C. wrote budget, Army made cuts

For years, the periodic Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process of streamlining the United States’ military infrastructure could be described largely as a matter of “winners” and “losers.” That has always been an important consideration with regard to local and regional economies, of which military installations are a major component.

In that regard, Fort Benning has been a consistent “winner,” even if the 2005 BRAC realignment that brought the Armor School here from Fort Knox, and more than $3 billion in Army capital investment, didn’t result in the economic and demographic ripple effects on a scale many had predicted and all of us hoped for.

Still, the post remains the Valley area’s single biggest economic engine and, according to former post commander Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, still “the heart and soul of the Army.”

The major hit Fort Benning takes with, among other losses, the deactivation of the 3rd Brigade Armored Combat Team has nothing to do with any BRAC process. This involves a different Washington alphabet soup, namely BCA — the Budget Control Act that cuts Pentagon spending and has prompted the Army to reduce troop strength from 570,000 to 450,000.

It also involves, as we recently learned, a “military value analysis” of the post that involved considerations most of us probably had not known about, or even considered.

Size, for starters. Most of us think of Fort Benning as enormous, yet the Army’s analysis concluded that the post area, while sufficient for existing training needs, was not big enough for training of an armored brigade combat team.

At least part of the land problem, as it turns out, is a temporary one: Fort Benning will soon have almost twice the presently available impact area for training in high-explosive ordnance.

Airspace is also an subject that has seldom come up in terms of Fort Benning’s logistical value. But the Army analysis noted that our proximity to the huge international airport at Atlanta restricts the post’s airspace to less than half that of some other posts.

“We have got to move forward,” Brig. Gen. Eric J. Wesley, the new post commander, said Friday. “The best way to get after this is to consider the impact of the BCA and not ultimately the decision the Army made.”

That now seems, quite rightly, to be the focus. Gary Jones, Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce vice president of military affairs, said the community and the post should work to replace what it has lost with units more suited to what it does best.

“A Stryker brigade or an infantry brigade requires much less maneuver training area than an armored brigade combat team,” he said.

Miller, the former commander, reminded us all of some bottom-line facts: “When you look at force structure across the Army, one of the things the chief (of staff) looks at is the ability to expand rapidly, if needed … you bring a lot of leaders, tactical ability and leader development. You have infrastructure here. Fort Benning is not in trouble. It remains important to the Army and it remains important to the nation.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Editorial: D.C. wrote budget, Army made cuts."