Missouri politicians are trying to paint anticipated cuts of 774 uniformed personnel at Fort Leonard Wood by 2017 as an “it-could-have-been-worse” scenario.
But more cuts could be on the way, and the reductions highlight the ongoing fight over spending caps in Congress.
Fort Leonard Wood currently has about 14,000 Army and civilian personnel employees, and about 12,000 troops in training, a spokesman for the base said Thursday. John LaBombard, a spokesman for Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said there are about 5,200 permanent uniformed personnel at the base.
The base’s Chief Information Officer, Shatara Seymour, said that beyond the 774 uniformed cuts, the impact of cuts on civilian employees may not be known until September, with a reduction, nationally, of 17,000 of civilian employees, expected on bases around the nation.
With the Army’s announcement that it would reduce total active duty strength from 490,000 to 450,000, Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; and Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, issued a joint statement saying that the cuts at Leonard Wood “are lower than the cuts at many other Army posts across the nation.” A total of 28 installations are bearing the brunt of this round of cuts.
They and Gov. Jay Nixon said that the cuts, while significant, have helped solidify Fort Leonard Wood’s critical role in troop training and development, in part because other facilities are hit harder.
They said that a meeting this spring, which drew 2,000 people and the second-largest crowd at Army “listening sessions” around the country, showed community concern for the future of the facility.
“Working with installation and Army leadership, in particular with the Missouri congressional delegation, Missouri has positioned Fort Leonard Wood for the Army of the future, as one of the premier training bases in the country,” McCaskill, Blunt and Hartzler said in a joint statement.
Nixon reiterated that sentiment in a release from his office.
“Fort Leonard Wood is vital to the security of our nation and the economy of the state,” Nixon said. “While I oppose any cuts to Fort Leonard Wood personnel, the limited and proportional reduction announced today reaffirms this fort’s core training mission and is a testament to ongoing efforts by state, local and federal leaders to protect this vital military asset.”
McCaskill, however, warned that further cuts may be in order, and she blamed Republican budget caps that will force the Army to further reduce its strength to 420,000 soldiers. Democrats have accused Republicans of budget gimmicks by budgeting for foreign wars in another account, which raises the military budget but does not allow the branches to maintain current force strength.
At a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting Thursday, McCaskill asked General Joseph Dunford, the nominee to be the next Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, about those budgeting practices.
Dunford responded that he would “much rather prefer that money to be in the base budget because that provides a degree of predictability that we can get after two main issues that we have to deal with.
“One is modernization of force, and the other is to get the readiness back to a level that we’re comfortable with,” Dunford said.
Seymour, the chief public information officer at Fort Leonard Wood, issued a statement saying that “the Army was directed to make reductions, and did so in a strategically considered approach to preserve war-fighting capability and avoid a hollow force as the Army faces continuing fiscal pressure.”
She said it was unclear how many of the impending civilian cuts would affect Fort Leonard Wood.
“The impact on Fort Leonard Wood and other installations won’t be known until September, pending the results of an on-going analysis on the effects of those civilian reductions,” the base’s statement said. “However, according to a U.S. Army statement, they anticipate the majority of the Department of the Army civilian reductions will be absorbed through attrition and positions that are currently unfilled.”