- COLUMBUS, Ga. - With Fort
Benning preparing for its largest troop expansion since the Vietnam War,
barber Anthony Brock figures he'll be giving a lot more GI haircuts, or
at least he'll have a steady stream of customers even when major units
deploy for combat.
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- Nearly 6,000 new soldiers are set to move to the western
Georgia Army post, which is already a major training center for recruits,
airborne troops, infantry soldiers, officers and reservists preparing for
combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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- Thousands more may come when the United States starts
closing European bases and brings home 60,000 soldiers and families, officials
say.
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- Fort Benning is already home to the 4,000-member 3rd
Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, which helped lead the charge into
Iraq in 2003 and will return to the war zone in a couple of months.
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- Now the fort is slated to get a new group of 3,800 light-infantry
soldiers who will be members of the 5th Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.
Another 1,690 soldiers will be added to handle the post's additional training
responsibilities and to expand existing units.
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- Joining the new soldiers will be an estimated 3,686 spouses
and 6,634 children. Many of the families will live off-post.
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- Builders already are responding with new apartment and
condo projects, and three more schools may be built to accommodate an estimated
5,000 new students, officials say.
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- Brock, who plies scissors at Ranger Joe's Barber Shop,
hopes the new troops will cushion the impact of future deployments.
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- "When the 3rd Brigade left, it cut my paycheck in
half," Brock said. "You won't feel the effect ... as bad with
more people here."
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- The influx of about 16,000 new residents over the next
few years will create at least 7,000 additional jobs and make a tremendous
economic impact on surrounding counties in Alabama and Georgia, said Mike
Gaymon, president and CEO of the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
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- "This is the equivalent of three or four Toyota
plants," he said. "The ... impact is gigantic."
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- Fort Benning already has an annual $1.9 billion impact
on the area and that could climb to an estimated $2.5 billion by 2006,
the chamber has said.
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- "We are jumping up for joy," said Bill Heard
III, president of Bill Heard Chevrolet, which sells about 40 percent of
the cars at its Columbus dealership to soldiers.
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- During the Vietnam War, Fort Benning's soldier population
increased from 25,000 to 45,000 with the addition of a division. The latest
expansion will increase the number of soldiers there to 20,000, not counting
the growing number who come temporarily for training. Fort Benning is expected
to train 80,000 soldiers next year, 10,000 more than this year.
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- Fort Benning's growth is the result of the transformation
of the Army into smaller, more rapidly deployable units.
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- The post is planning $1.5 billion worth of construction
projects within about seven years to accommodate the expansion.
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- The post's eight "starships" - permanent buildings
that house trainees - already are full and additional trainees are living
in the equivalent of doublewide mobile homes, said Chuck Walls, the deputy
garrison commander.
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- Thousands of reservists who come to Fort Benning to prepare
for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan live in modular housing or large
air-conditioned tents, Walls said.
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- "I have never seen the level of activity that's
going on now," he said. "It's crazy, but it's fun. We're one
of the leading bases. We're where the action is."
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- Army Base Readies For Expansion
- http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_
benning_112904,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl
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