For the next couple of years, Joint Base Lewis-McChord's future looks good.
"Right now, we've been given great resources," Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza, I Corps newest commanding general, said yesterday morning during a round table discussion with local media held at Bronson Hall.
"The question becomes, where do we go in 2016 and '17?"
Lanza's concern is that Congress will allow sequestration - the mandated federal spending reduction - to proceed.
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has stated those cuts would force the Pentagon to reduce the active-duty Army from its current 522,000 number of soldiers to 420,000, a pre World War II rate.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) currently has 32,000 active-duty soldiers. It has lost several thousand due to reductions announced last year.
The largest cut centered on the recent inactivation of 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
The Army Environmental Command is exploring how reducing the Army to a force of 420,000 would look across the military. A study on this will be published later this summer.
"Where do those cuts come from? I don't know," Lanza said.
A precedent to be followed is the initial environmental study that resulted in the inactivation of 4th Brigade, formerly one of JBLM's three Stryker brigades.
A Stryker brigade fields about 4,500 soldiers and brings with it a budget of about $230 million a year, something that local communities pay attention to.
"We are the largest joint base in the Army," Lanza said.
He also talked about the Army's rebalancing in the Pacific Rim now that the war in Afghanistan is winding down.
I Corps participated in three exercises last year in which is functioned as a land headquarters under the Navy's Pacific Command.
More exercises are scheduled for next year. These are planned to involve more soldiers on the ground than just the Corps' senior leaders.
The idea is to send soldiers to Alaska, Hawaii and Washington to support Pacific Command in military-to-military exercises.
"We are working to increase the Corps expeditionary capabilities," Lanza commented.
He also discussed JBLM's efforts in successfully dealing with sexual harassment, an improved officer evaluation report, and an emphasis on helping soldiers transition from military life to civilian employment.
"Seeing what soldiers do every day energizes me," Lanza said toward the end of the discussion.
"I am always excited about what our soldiers do an their commitment to this profession. The goodness of the Army rests with our soldiers."
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