Fort Hood - As Seen from our State Capitol

The following is extracted from the “Defense 2008 Master Plan Report," published by the Texas Military Preparedness Commission in the Office of the Governor, and providing detailed descriptions of eighteen Texas military installations and their respective contributions to the state's economic wellbeing and the nation's defense.

This year's report highlights the contributions being made by Fort Hood Soldiers and their families, and identifies areas of need as the installation and Central Texas prepare for the future.

These areas of need include:

A full service federal medical center built on partnerships with Texas A&M School of Health Sciences, the VA with its capability to care for the Central Texas beneficiary population and DoD design and construction funds.

A second runway on Fort Hood’s RGAAF to support commercial expansion, military training, deployment and redeployment.

An upper-level and graduate studies university, to be named Texas A&M University -Central Texas.

Regional and state support for ACUB - a voluntarily agreed upon natural buffer between military training lands and residential or commercial activities for perpetuity.

And the cooperation, support and influence of community, state, regional and federal partners to address the following transportation concerns:

Extension of Hwy. 195 on to Fort Hood between Rancier Ave. and Central Dr.
Upgrade of Tank Destroyer Blvd. from Clarke Rd. to FM 116
New access to West Fort Hood
Improved intersection at Hwy. 201 and Mohawk Rd.
Southeast and northeast bypasses around the City of Copperas Cove

The entire report is available at:

http://governor.state.tx.us/files/military/masterplan/pdf

Fort Hood

Introduction

Fort Hood is the Army’s premier armored force installation and strategic power projection platform. In 2001, Fort Hood was authorized 41,000 Soldiers. Since the inception of the Global War on Terrorism, Fort Hood has surged in capacity to an authorized strength of over 53,000 Soldiers – reaching a peak in assigned troop strength of 55,800 Soldiers in March 2008. One out of every 10 active duty Soldiers in the Army is assigned to Fort Hood.

Location

Located 60 miles north of Austin and 50 miles south of Waco, the fort occupies 335 square miles (almost 215,000 acres) of Bell and Coryell Counties. There are more than 136,000 acres of maneuver area on post with 63,000 acres identified for live fire impact. With 6 airfields, Fort Hood has more than 468 miles of paved roads and 447 miles of tank trails. There are currently 5,043 active buildings on post with more than 28.1 million square feet of floor space.

Economic Impact

Seven surrounding cities (with a regional population of 335,000) are partnered with and provide substantial quality of life support to Fort Hood. Almost 98 percent of the 52,200-plus Soldiers assigned – and their family members – live within 10 miles of the flag pole.

These Soldiers are complimented by more than 11,900 civilian employees at the Central Texas post, making Fort Hood the largest single site employer in the state and directly inserting nearly $6 billion annually into the Texas economy. In 2007, the direct economic impact of Fort Hood on the Texas economy was $4.4 billion dollars, with a total statewide impact of $10.8 billion dollars.

Mission

III Corps, Fort Hood’s senior military headquarters, is a campaign quality corps with joint and expeditionary capabilities, prepared for full spectrum operations in support of joint, combined and interagency missions. When directed, the Corps will deploy to a theater of operation, conduct military operations and redeploy. As the Nation’s counteroffensive force, III Corps trains, mobilizes, deploys and sustains ready forces. Training for counteroffensive combat operations is III Corps’ main effort.

Reserve Component Mobilization

Fort Hood has become as a key mobilization station for Army Reserve and National Guard units (USAR/NG) nationwide. Last year the 650th Area Support Group transitioned to the Hood Mobilization Brigade (HMB). All RC mobilization now occurs at North Fort Hood (NFH).

Since October 2001, 31,564 Soldiers have mobilized through Fort Hood with almost 14,000 being from Texas. Since the beginning of FY2007, the HMB has mobilized 26 USAR/NG units (5,320-plus Citizen-Soldiers) and de-mobilized 22 USAR/NG units (more than 6,400). In March, the 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) comprised of 2,500 Ohio and Michigan Guardsmen, mobilized at NFH. Through the remainder of CY08, the HMB will mobilize more than 5,400 Reservists and Guardsmen in support of the GWOT.

US Army Operational Test Command (OTC)

OTC is charged with conducting realistic and continuous operational testing of Army equipment, doctrine, force design and training. Operational testing involves using regular active Army units in realistic scenarios to find the real truth - what works, precisely why and how well. OTC employs state-of-the-art instrumentation to harvest test data that documents performance levels and operational suitability for America’s transforming Army.

Fighting the Fight

No installation in the nation has had, or now has, more members deployed in support of the Global War on Terrorism than Fort Hood.

As the national command authority rotates combat forces in and out of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OIF/OEF), virtually every Fort Hood major unit has been in the fight at least twice and some now on a third or fourth tour. They include:

Headquarters, III US Armored Corps - 1,200 Soldiers deployed in FY06 & 08
1st Cavalry Division - 16,000 Soldiers deployed in FY04, 06 & 07
4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) - 18,000 Soldiers currently deployed
3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment - 4,200 Soldiers currently deployed
13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) - 5,100 Soldiers, elements continuously deployed from FY04 through FY07
89th Military Police Brigade - 1,150 Soldiers, elements continuously deployed from FY04 through FY07
504th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade - 1,100 Soldiers, elements continuously deployed from FY04 through FY07
3rd Signal Brigade - 950 Soldiers, deployed in FY06-07; now in the transformation process
13th Finance Group - 350 Soldiers, elements continuously deployed from FY04 through FY07; now in the transformation process
36th Engineer Brigade - 1,800 Soldiers arrived from Fort Benning, GA in FY06 and deployed to Afghanistan in FY07
Operational Test Command - 1,000 Soldiers, deployed small teams in FY06-08
Darnall Army Medical Center - 1,000 Soldiers, deployed specialist medical teams FY04-07

BRAC Impact

The 2005 BRAC recommendations brought immediate and significant challenges to Fort Hood including competing for attention and funding alongside the Army’s ongoing transformation, growth and operational tempo. As noted in the December 2007 GAO Report to Congress, BRAC cost estimates have significantly increased and are likely to continue to evolve. The BRAC Commission’s reported cost estimate for Fort Hood was $435.8 million compared to DoD’s FY2008 budget estimate of $621.8 – a difference of $186 million, or 43 percent in increased costs.

The GAO also supports the Army’s contention that on a per capita basis, Soldier training at Fort Hood continues to be more economically accomplished than at any other major Army installation. The Army has consistently recognized the unique ability of Fort Hood and Central Texas to house, support and sustain 50,000 Soldiers and their families in whatever formations today's and tomorrow's forces will find themselves.

Restructuring at Fort Hood

During the last two years, America’s Army at Fort Hood has completed restructuring its assigned forces to include the 1st Cavalry Division, 4th Infantry Division and the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary). Only the headquarters, III Armored Corps, remains to be restructured into the modular design and this will be accomplished during the early months of 2009.

When these moves are complete, Fort Hood will house a corps-level headquarters, 1 division level headquarters, a corps level sustainment command, 5 heavy maneuver BCTs, up to 8 other brigade-size formations, major tenant units and retain a capability to accommodate additional significant service specific or joint services growth.

Capacity Utilization

Fort Hood is capitalized to fully support current and future Army, joint and combined force mission requirements. The post’s largest single on-post training segment is called the Western Maneuver Area (WMA) which stretches 20 miles from north to south and from the western boundary of the installation eastward to the live fire impact area.

The WMA easily accommodates a full-up, modern, digitally equipped heavy battalion task force exercising in multiple scenarios over several weeks at a time. Direct access to Lake Belton provides training in all phases of water obstacle and river crossing operations, from small unit to division level. The Army’s only Battle Command Training Center is located at Fort Hood.

The largest combat aviation training area in the free world, comprised of 15,900 square miles, begins on Fort Hood and continues west from Bell and Coryell Counties to Runnels and Tom Green Counties. This allows U.S. and allied military helicopter crews to train in a realistic environment that affords the distances and depths required in combat aviation operations.

Army Compatible Use Buffer (ACUB)

A local ACUB is being examined, allowing Fort Hood to work with partners to purchase development rights or easements on rural lands along the installation boundary to protect training without actually acquiring new land for Army ownership. These areas will provide a natural buffer between military training lands and residential or commercial activities in perpetuity.

For the safety of its airfields, family housing and the surrounding communities, Fort Hood has already established an internal one-mile buffer zone from the installation boundary where the use of smoke and artillery firing is prohibited.

Capital Investment

The Army has consistently demonstrated its commitment to long term infrastructure improvements at Fort Hood. These include 99 new or renovated barracks, state of the art command and control facilities, the 21st century Krueger Soldier Development & Education Center, the one-stop Copeland Soldier Service Center, an aggressive range modernization program and modern installation support facilities.

Since FY2000, the Army has invested more than $100 million to improve Fort Hood’s rail and airlift capabilities. The installation boasts the Army's largest and most technology sophisticated railhead with twelve spurs, nine sorting tracks and a $40 million upgrade to its Aerial Port of Embarkation at Robert Gray Army Airfield (RGAA).

FY2008 military construction and VA appropriations bill dollars targeted at Fort Hood total $164.9 million. The Army’s FY2008 GWOT ―budget book‖ supplement for Warriors in Transition at Fort Hood is $9.1 million. That totals more than $174 million in MCA authorizations for Central Texas during the last 14 months.

RegionalMedical Center

Fort Hood’s Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center (CRDAMC) is a teaching hospital affiliated with Scott & White Memorial Hospital, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) Central Texas Health Care System in Temple, and with Texas A&M University Health Science Center College of Medicine in Bryan-College Station.

CRDAMC has combined graduate medical programs in obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and medicine with Wilford Hall Air Force and Brooke Army Medical Centers in San Antonio. Darnall serves 163,000 military beneficiaries in a 40 mile radius of Fort Hood. Of this number, 48,000 are active duty military, 52,000 are retirees and the remainder are Soldiers' family members.

The Fort Hood leadership is currently seeking federal partnerships to share the estimated $500 million in construction cost for a healthcare campus on a 40 acre tract off Clear Creek Road. There is no question the need exists. Doctors at CRDAMC refer more than 16,000 patients annually to the San Antonio Military Medical Center with annual referral costs currently exceeding $2 million.

Warriors in Transition

Fort Hood’s Warriors in Transition Unit (WTU) provides Soldiers and their families with a receptive, hassle-free and supportive environment where they can focus on their primary mission of healing. The post is now challenged with building and maintaining 32 interim and permanent facilities for the estimated 1,600 Soldiers in rehabilitation at the WTU adjacent to CRDAMC. The post has received $13.3 million in GWOT construction funds for facility upgrades and new construction. Additionally, $9.1 million in military construction authority is programmed for FY2008 with a $62 million MCA allocation identified for FY2009.

Secondary Runway

A secondary runway at RGAAF – as part of the Killeen Fort Hood Regional Airport (KFHRA) Master Plan – would provide additional opportunities for airfield operations and facilitate future joint training and basing options for DoD. It would also significantly enhance commercial aviation capabilities for the airport. KFHRA currently receives 34 flights daily and manifested more than 150,000 passengers last year.

Preliminary engineering design in support of a 4,000 ft. assault landing strip (ALS) has been approved by the City of Killeen 2nd Runway Task Force. Fort Hood will develop and execute the environmental assessment for the ALS. Post officials will also coordinate and schedule military engineering units to execute the earth moving and build the ALS as part of and in advance of the second runway’s overall construction.

TexasA&M University

A shared vision exists between Fort Hood and Texas A&M to establish a Central Texas campus on 662 acres of Fort Hood land available for transfer to the State of Texas. In March 2008 the Friends of Texas A&M Central Texas was formed to provide student scholarships. This community based not–for-profit organization is focused on raising funds locally for financial aid. It recently received $200,000 from the Killeen Economic Development Foundation with promises of $100,000 in annual matching funds over the next 3 years.

Army Family Covenant (AFC)

The Fort Hood leadership is committed to providing Soldiers and their families a strong and supportive environment where they can thrive.

These efforts include:

Standardizing and funding existing family programs and services
Increasing accessibility and quality of health care
Improving Soldier and family housing
Ensuring excellence in schools, youth services and child care
Expanding education and employment opportunities for family

Last year’s expenditure of $317,000 on Family & Morale, Welfare & Recreation Command programs at Fort Hood included the upgrade to two child development centers and a youth center.

Soldier and Family Housing

Fort Hood has 99 barracks that house approximately 15,344 Soldiers and 6,212 family quarters that house about 30 percent of the active duty population. The family quarters are managed through Actus Lend Lease, the Residential Community Initiative (RCI) housing partner. Under this program more than 4,500 sets of quarters have been renovated.

Privatization of Army Lodging (PAL)

The Privatization of Army Lodging program (PAL) is an army-wide program with Fort Hood being 1 of only 12 installations, making up the first phase of the PAL program. The Lodging Development and Management Plan has been completed and transition began in June 2008 and facility transfers in October 2008. Fort Hood’s partners for PAL are Actus Lend Lease and the InterContinental Hotels Group.

Two 139-room Staybridge Suites motel complexes will be built on Fort Hood. One is a Clear Creek site at Clear Creek Road and Tank Destroyer Blvd., and the second is a Main Street site at Battalion Ave. and 37th Street. They are expected to open in January and April 2010 respectively. The Keith L. Ware Hall transient lodging facility adjacent to the hospital will be renovated and remodeled by Actus Lend Lease as part of the PAL initiative.

Environmental Concerns

Since 1998, assisted by The Nature Conservancy and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Fort Hood has made substantial progress in restoring the state's populations of the Black Capped Vireo and the Golden Cheeked Warbler after both faced extinction. Fort Hood has identified 800 sites with possible sensitive cultural ties to early Native Americans or western settlers who occupied the area prior to the 1942 founding of Fort Hood. The installation is working with the Texas State Historical Preservation Office under the Alternative Procedures Program to identify the sites which are historically significant.

TexasHighways & Byways

To strengthen the strategic projection capability of forces from Fort Hood to and through Gulf Coast seaports, the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) has embarked on a $161.7 million dollar initiative to widen Highway 195 from Fort Hood to Georgetown. Scheduled for completion by 2012, this expansion will provide an uninterrupted four lane, interstate-quality highway from Fort Hood to IH-35 and on to the ports.

The State of Texas has also committed $20.5 million in local highway infrastructure construction, intent on improving regional mobility by improving traffic flow on and off-post.

That money is intended to fund:

Hwy. 195 extension that began in June 2007
Tank Destroyer Rd. improvements from Clarke Rd. to FM 116
Hwy. 190 dedicated military vehicle overpass
Hwy. 201 & Mohawk Ave. intersection improvements

TXDOT must remain committed to improving transportation infrastructure in the communities surrounding Fort Hood. Fort Hood leadership supports the 8 projects currently under way, in design or being planned at a total estimated cost of $350 million.

It cannot be over-emphasized that both Texas Gulf Coast ports support the deployment of all military units west of the Mississippi River. The Fort Hood leadership continues to push hard for the completion of projects funded by:

$13.9 million in State and Federal allocations to Beaumont for port improvements
$5.2 million in State funds allocated for similar work in Corpus Christi

Independent School Districts (ISDs)

On post, Fort Hood has 9 schools: 2 middle schools and 7 elementary with a total enrollment of almost 4,800 students and a total operating budget of more than $16 million. In FY2006, Fort Hood generated $60 million in Federal Impact Funds for local communities. In recent years, 6 school bond elections have passed providing more than $239 million in funds for local schools. Fort Hood 2010 is a region-wide effort that operates an Adopt-A-School program, providing Soldier and family volunteer mentors to more than 80 elementary, middle and high schools in the 8 adjacent and nearby independent school districts.

Installation Needs

Fort Hood would benefit from a full service federal medical center built on partnerships with Texas A&M School of Health Sciences, the VA with its capability to care for the Central Texas beneficiary population and DoD design and construction funds.

Additionally, a second runway on Fort Hood’s RGAAF to support commercial expansion, military training, deployment and redeployment of US forces is needed, as well as, continued academic, community and state support for an upper-level and graduate studies university on post establishment of Texas A&M University-Central Texas. Also needed is regional and state support for ACUB – a natural buffer between military training lands and residential or commercial activities for perpetuity.

Fort Hood will especially need the cooperation, support and influence of community, state, regional and federal partners to address the following transportation concerns:

Extension of Hwy. 195 on to Fort Hood between Rancier Ave. and Central Dr.
Upgrade of Tank Destroyer Blvd. from Clarke Rd. to FM 116
New access to West Fort Hood
Improved intersection at Hwy. 201 and Mohawk Rd.
Southeast and northeast bypasses around the City of Copperas Cove

Conclusion

Ranked by the 2005 Base Realignment and Closures Commission as No. 1 among the Army’s 97 installations in terms of ―future‖ capability, Fort Hood will remain a model Army installation, with outstanding infrastructure, ranges and power projection capabilities. On a per capita basis, Soldier training is accomplished more economically at Fort Hood than at any other Army installation. The Army has consistently recognized the unique ability of Fort Hood and Central Texas to house, support and sustain upwards of 50,000 Soldiers and their families in whatever formations today's and tomorrow's forces might find themselves.