U.S. Army down sizing could affect 20,000 Hawaii soldiers

Posted 2015-01-28 11:59 by Grunt Report with 0 comments

HONOLULU —The U.S. Army is about to make major cuts to it’s roster and tens of thousands of troops will be affected. The question now is will they be from Hawaii. The economic impact would be drastic if that happened and Schofield Barracks and Fort Shafter could face a very different future.

“Please consider what the majority wants and not the loud minority,” said representative Joe Souki, house speaker (D).

It was an unexpected war of words in Waikiki as what was supposed to be a “listening” session with the U.S. Army turned into yelling.

“You will get your turn, you will get your turn, okay gentlemen,” said representative Gene Ward.

The issue at hand is that the Army needs to cut back on it’s force by nearly 80-thousand troops. There’s 30 bases around the world that those cuts could come from including two in Hawaii. Before a decision on where those cuts will come from, the Army is on the ground getting feedback from the public to take back to Washington D.C.

“Military they take our country from us, it’s time the military give our country back to us,” said a testifier.

Not everyone shared that testifiers same opinion. In fact, all of the lawmakers on Tuesday nights panel including Hawaii’s members of congress said they’re against the army down sizing in the state.

“Soldiers have become such an integrated part of our community, from education to businesses. It really affects each and every part of the community,” said Governor David Ige.

“If you were to cut 16,000 people out of Schofield and almost 4,000 out of Fort Shafter, the same kind of silence would fall and the impact would be deafening to this community,” said Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

There’s nearly 20,000 troops that could be affected from both Schofield Barracks and Fort Shafter bases. Add in their families and that number goes up to 50,000. An Army spokesperson says that the threat of all of those soldiers leaving is just the worst case scenario.

“It could be anywhere from the max loss all the way to nothing,” said Col. Thomas O’Donoghue, U.S. Department of the Army.

Local shops in Wahiawa say any kind of cut could put them out of business for good.

“Let the troops stay here in Hawaii because it really helps the business. It brings money you know the troops here, we eat off the troops,” said Feliciano Lee, a Wahiawa barber.

The Army says it’ll take all of Tuesday night’s testimony back to the Pentagon with it so a decision on how and what bases to down size from can be made. That decision is set for late summer. If you missed Tuesday night’s session you’ve got another chance to weigh in on this issue Wednesday night at Leileihua High School. That meeting starts at 630.

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Source: KITV HI