US Army to Grow

Lolita Baldor of the Associated Press reports on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

The Pentagon will send six new combat brigades to bases in Texas, Georgia and Colorado in the coming years as part of an extensive plan to increase the size of the Army.

...Fort Bliss in Texas, Fort Carson in Colorado and Fort Stewart in Georgia will be big winners, each getting two new combat brigades. But every Army installation across the country will see more soldiers -- anywhere from a few to thousands.

A brigade is generally about 3,500 soldiers...

...Three of the support brigades also will go to Texas -- with an air defense brigade and a logistics brigade going to Fort Hood, and another unit going to Fort Bliss. The other support brigades would be scattered around the U.S. -- with two going to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, one to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, one to Fort Lewis and one to Fort Polk in Louisiana.

In addition, a support unit in Fort Irwin, Calif., will shift to Fort Richardson in Alaska, and another will go from Hawaii to Fort Drum in New York.

The massive plan will impact 304 Army installations, including 380,000 soldiers and family members. The construction projects include 69,000 barracks spaces, 4,100 family housing units and 66 child centers.

Plans are to increase the number of the active-duty Army, Army Guard and Army Reserve by 74,000 overall, with the active-duty force growing by 65,000 to a total of 547,000. In October, top Army leaders said they planned to move faster to increase the size of the force -- adding the full 74,000 soldiers by 2010, two years sooner than originally planned....