Thursday, the United States Army unveiled its two year plan to cut 40 thousand soldiers nationwide.
Fort Bliss will lose 1,200 soldiers — but when you break down the cuts nationwide that’s a relatively small number. For example — Texas’ other major Army post Fort Hood — will lose roughly 3,300 soldiers.
Although local leaders and soldiers here in El Paso say every cut counts.
“You said there’s 12 hundred here? Wow, that does worry me a lot,” says Dustin Thomas.
Reductions, cuts, however you put it, many say it’s not good.
“Any loss of our force structure is overall not a good thing for our defense systems,” says Richard Dayoub, Great El Paso Chamber Commerce.
The army’s plan to reduce the force to 450,000 is not anything new, but details about where those cuts would be made, had not been released until today. Here’s how it breaks down at Fort Bliss:
The 1st Armored Division Headquarters will lose about 225 soldiers.
Two Armored Brigade Combat Teams will see a reduction of 450 soldiers each, as well as a five percent reduction at other brigade headquarters within the 1st Armored Divison.
“Sure there are some reductions that are going to come but I am comfortable that we can get through those reductions,” says Fort Bliss Commander Major General Stephen Twitty.
Twitty says he’s known these reductions were coming for a while, but he says he always remained confident that our military leaders understand the importance of the training solders get here at Fort Bliss, and predicted they wouldn’t make any drastic changes.
“This installation is a premiere training area that we can’t afford to lose as a military and so I’m not worried about Fort Bliss. Fort Bliss is going to be okay,” says Twitty.
And it seems he may be onto something. Even after sequestration cuts finish in 2017, Fort Bliss will still have just over 25 thousand soldiers, compared to 8.8 thousand it had in pre 9/11.
Even so, some say every cut runs deep.
“They keep cutting soldiers they might cut them to a point where if something breaks out it might effect, you never know,” says Thomas.
The cuts will begin in October and are driven by the Budget Control Act of 2011 and ongoing budget cuts. The Army warns unless budget changes are made, it may have to cut another 30,000 soldiers by 2019. At that level, the Army says it would not be able to meet its current deployments.
(Information from ElPasoProud.com)
