FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — The Army is too important to Hawaii and Hawaii too vital to the Army to tolerate “worst-case” scenario troop cuts in the state, possible under sequestration in 2016.
The top Pacific Army commander, business leaders, legislators and even the newly elected Hawaii governor were in agreement on that simple equation Friday during an annual meeting of the Military Affairs Council of the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.
The Army is in midst of finalizing force restructuring, with the original goal of reducing the number of active-duty soldiers to 490,000 by 2020.
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In October, however, the Army released a supplemental report analyzing the reductions possibly necessary should further sequestration take place for fiscal year 2016, which begins in October. Troop levels could be cut to as low as 420,000.
Sequestration is a series of automatic, across-the-board cuts in discretionary spending, much of which is in defense. Congress and the White House enacted sequestration in 2011 after failing to agree on a plan to reduce the federal deficit.
The Hawaii chamber launched the Keep Hawaii’s Heroes campaign in November as a way of galvanizing the public and elected officials to voice opposition to the deep cuts.
“We are one of many states that are going to be in competition,” said David Carey, chairman of the chamber’s military council. “There’s no guarantee we will win, but if we don’t show up to play, we definitely will lose.”
The military is the second-largest economic sector in Hawaii, surpassed only by tourism.
Under the worst-case scenario, about 16,000 of roughly 18,400 soldiers at Schofield Barracks in Oahu would be trimmed. Almost 4,000 of 7,400 soldiers at Fort Shafter would be cut.
With the additional loss of about 30,000 family members, the cuts would reduce Honolulu’s population by about 5 percent.
RELATED: Stars and Stripes coverage of sequestration
“They are not anticipated numbers or planned numbers,” said Gen. Vincent Brooks, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, at the meeting. “They’re certainly not requested numbers.”
“The moral of the story is sequestration has to be relieved, one way or another,” Brooks said.
About 25 domestic bases would suffer “significant” socio-economic impact if the deep cuts were made, according to the supplemental Army study.
Communities surrounding those bases — which include forts Bliss and Hood in Texas and Fort Stewart in Georgia — will undoubtedly argue why deep cuts shouldn’t be made there.
In the meantime, Brooks and other speakers — including Pacific Command commander Lt. Gen. Anthony Crutchfield and Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Harry B. Harris, Jr. — made the case for the military importance of Hawaii.
“Hawaii has become a bastion for defense for U.S. national interests and also a significant point of projection for U.S. capabilities,” Brooks said.
“In Hawaii, there are nine general officers-led headquarters for the U.S. Army. That means that this is the place where we make our decisions.”
The strongest argument for maintaining a robust Army presence in Hawaii is President Barack Obama’s rebalance to the Pacific initiative, said several speakers.
Brooks said that there has been a 60 percent increase in Army forces in the Pacific region since the rebalance began. “That includes 40,000 more soldiers,” he said.
Crutchfield said that Hawaii had been central to the “steady forward progress” of the Pacific pivot.
To quantify that, he said that Pacific Command had received $9 billion in “rebalance initiatives across the theater” from 2012 to 2014.
“That $9 billion was tied directly to the rebalance, and we would not have received those resources had we not had that strategy,” he said.
“We must keep our foot on the accelerator of rebalance,” he said.
Crutchfield said that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has announced that he will host another defense forum involving the U.S. and Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Hawaii this year. He will also meet with ASEAN defense ministers here as he did for the first time in April 2014.
“(Those are) two very important conferences that will highlight the strategic importance of the state of Hawaii,” Crutchfield said.
Gov. David Ige said that in the 1990s, many were talking about the 21st century being the century of the Pacific. Fifteen years in, “every single trend points to the importance of the Pacific” and of Hawaii’s place in it, Ige said.
“As governor, I’m prepared to work with each and every one of you,” he said to the collection of high-ranking brass and business leaders in attendance.
The Chamber of Commerce Hawaii is trying to get 40,000 signatures on its Keep Hawaii’s Heroes petition by Jan. 27. That’s the day U.S. Army officials arrive in Hawaii on a nationwide circuit of “listening sessions” soliciting comments on the force restructuring.
The first of two sessions in Oahu will be at the Hale Koa Hotel on Waikiki Beach that evening.
olson.wyatt@stripes.com
Twitter: @WyattWOlson
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