Army Restationing Plan
1. Background.
The Army has announced it’s restationing plan. VCSA, GEN Richard Cody, conducted a press conference 27 July. The stationing of the modular BCTs is critical to ensure the Army is properly postured to fully support its strategic commitments, including ongoing operations in support of the global war on terror.
Comments directly affecting 4ID:
The piece that Mr. DuBois talked about in terms of articulating to our family members that, yes, there'll be a lot of changes in the Army, but we're not going to move our people, is the good example of this brigade here. This brigade is the 4th Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division. We moved families in there, we moved troops in it, and we built it. And we transformed the other brigades of the 4th Infantry Division.
Because they just got there, this division, as you know, with these four brigades are going to move to Iraq and relieve the 3rd Infantry Division here in the fall. When this tour of duty is done, they will come back. And as you know, our plan is to put the 4th Infantry Division with four brigades up to Ft. Carson over time.
All three of these brigades will come back to Ft. Hood after a year. The division troops will come back to Ft. Hood. 3rd Brigade will go right back to where it came from. But over time, in about 120 days, the division headquarters, these two brigades, because they've been there for a while and their families have been there for a while, will move up to Ft. Carson. This brigade, because it's brand new, will just take its patch off, and it'll put the patch of the 1st Cavalry Division on, so that we can stabilize those families and those soldiers there. And the beauty of the plan overall is, because we're putting like capabilities at these posts, we're able to stabilize our soldiers and, again, stabilize our families.
Another complex move -- and I'll do a couple of these, and then I'll go to the end state to show you how complex this is – the 3rd ACR. The 3rd ACR is in combat now. It'll be coming home in the fall – late fall. And it will go, all the troops will go back to Ft. Carson. Their equipment will stop, and most of their heavy equipment will go to Ft. Hood. And then, in a 120-day time period, those personnel that haven't been stationed longer than three years at Ft. Carson will stay there and start filling out the two brigades of the 4th Infantry Division. The rest of them will come down here and will build the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in its permanent end state down at Ft. Hood, Texas.
Here at Carson, when they come home the 4th Infantry Division next year will move back up to Ft. Carson. And as you know, it was at Ft. Carson back in the '80s. It will have its two brigades that came out of Hood, its 3rd Brigade that was already there. And this would be the 2nd of the 2nd Infantry Brigade that came out -- that's coming out now, and it will be a light brigade, and it will transform over time this year.
And so that will be the new footprint of the Army over time. By '07, 90 percent of this will be done. The last part of it to be done will be, of course, the Ft. Bliss area. And tied to this entire plan, once BRAC is completed, the Army has a military construction plan that is timed to all these new builds.
2. Theme: 4ID remains focused on preparing Soldiers and family members for our upcoming deployment to Iraq.
3. Public Statement.
“4th Infantry Division has a serious mission ahead. Our focus remains on combat readiness. We fully expect to engage a determined enemy – we are preparing for this enemy everyday.”
– Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commanding general, 4th Infantry Division.
4. Messages and Talking Points.
Key Message: We trust the Army leadership to make the right decisions and take care of Soldiers and their families.
4ID is focused on our current mission and taking care of Soldiers and their families.
This nation’s at war and we’re serious about it.
We know the Army is going to make the right decision – Do the right thing.
As always the centerpiece of our Army is the Soldier.
Talking Points:
The division’s focus must remain on deployment – Our Army is currently serving a nation at War; a global war on terrorism that is not going away anytime soon.
We cannot afford to shift our energy and focus from our preparations. It’s about Soldiers. They’re counting on us to get it right. We must must get this division ready to go back into harms way.
We are about to assume responsibility for the safety and security of seven million people. The last thing we want is to become complacent and side tracked by other distractions.
Rest assured, the last thing this command would do is take any shortcuts and short-change Soldiers and their families. The Army does not operate that way.
From Ironhorse 6:
This is about Army transformation and we must understand that.
After returning from Iraq and stabilizing for at least 120, days we could begin moving. 4BCT will remain at Hood and change patches to 1st Cavalry Division. 1st and 2nd BCT, along with the division headquarters, will move to Ft. Carson. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based at Ft. Carson, will join 4ID. The Aviation, Fires and Support Brigades will remain at Ft. Hood.
I want you to convey to our Soldiers. First, we are not going to deploy any families or Soldiers from Ft. Hood to Ft. Carson while we are deployed to Iraq. This whole process will take time and money. It will mean a lot of patch changes and reflagging actions.
Second, your CG will not allow any soldier or family member to get disadvantaged with this. I have made this point very clear to my bosses. We will develop clear criteria for movement of Soldiers and families that considers our care for them and the mission. That criteria is not developed yet, but will be published in the future as more facts are available.
Third, I need us to stay focused on training and preparing our formations for redeployment. We have a very tough fight ahead of us and we cannot lose sight of the mission at hand.
Last, we do not need to be rendering our opinions because we do not know all the details of the Army’s overall restationing plan. It is dangerous to speculate and make assumptions when we do not know all the facts. When I know the full plan, I will tell you and we will brief our Soldiers and families. I will make myself available anytime to speak to soldiers and families. Tell your Soldiers they are doing a terrific job for us and I am very proud of them and I do not want them worried about this.
5. Additional information
a. Additional information can be found on the micro site set up at www.army.mil.
b. See attached Army public affairs guidance, patch chart and talking points per specific installation.
c. The press conference is available on Ironhorse Net in the PAO folder. LNOs will receive a copy via CD 28 July. It is also found at www.pentagonchannel.mil.
6. Point of contact for this PAG is LTC Withington, Division PAO, 681-3054 [email protected].
AC Brigade Combat Team Stationing (Fort Hood)
Talking Points
• In order to align the Division and modular Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) to best support the operational needs of the combatant commanders and to facilitate optimal training and readiness the Army will relocate and/or reflag a number of units.
• Part of this balancing of capabilities is the decision to restation the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) from Fort Carson to Fort Hood, Texas.
• The move of the 3rd ACR will be synchronized with operational deployments and the relocation/reflagging of 4th Infantry Division Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) to Fort Carson.
• By the end of the decade, Texas will be the home of the equivalent of nine of our 43 Army Modular Brigade Combat Teams (BCT) with 5 at Fort Hood and 4 at Fort Bliss.
• Fort Hood remains one of our premier training, readiness and deployment platforms and will experience some net growth when all is said and done.
• The Secretary of the Army’s remarks to the Fort Hood community regarding the reflagging of the 3rd ACR and 4th Infantry Division BCTs are consistent with BRAC final recommendations for the quantity and types of units here.
• The Army must posture facilities to effectively orient combat capabilities where they can most effectively organize, train and deploy to support ongoing operations worldwide.
• The Army plans to release the entire picture of our Active Component BCT stationing some time in the near future. It will include not only the moves involving Fort Hood and Fort Carson, but the stationing of all our Active Brigades, including the return of forces from Europe and Korea.
• Our calculations for the training capacity at Fort Hood included the 37,000 acres released from environmental restrictions in March 2005. We also considered that our modular brigades require a substantially greater amount of training space due to their greater capability and organization.
• The Army Active Component BCT Posture plan is subject to change in accordance with the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) process.
• The Army is committed to minimizing the turbulence from transformation for Soldiers and their families. Soldiers will move with their families as family moves will not be scheduled until the Soldier redeploys.
• Depending on the type of BCT, (Heavy, Infantry, Stryker or Airborne) the number of troops assigned, per BCT will range from 3,500 to 3,900* Soldiers.
* Note: Estimated BCT Personnel Strengths:
HVY (Heavy): 3,900 INF (Infantry): 3,500
SBCT (Stryker) 3,900 ABN (Airborne): 3,523
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