Army Installations: Supporting the War And Transforming

Army, Mar 2005 by Prosch, Geoffrey G

September 11, 2001 changed the nation, and it changed the Army. The Army is now at war and transforming, and installations are a key part of both. Make no mistake, "Army Installations" is big business: a $12+ billion per year budget supports 181 Army installations that contain more than 110,000 housing units and 138,000 barracks units and encompass over 16.7 million acres of military land worldwide. If Army Installations were a Fortune 500 company, it would be ranked slightly behind Delta Air Lines and ahead of Office Depot.

Installations are a key part of achieving the Army's three goals: to win the war, to transform the Army and to secure the resources needed to accomplish the first two goals. As it wages the war on terrorism, the Army is changing from an outside the continental U.S.-based Army to a continental U.S.-based Army, and is also shifting from division formations to enhanced brigade combat teams that are task organized and projected to deploy and hit the ground fighting.

Think of how important it is for installations to support this war effort. The Army launches its formations from its installations-its power projection platforms. Installations are where the Army mobilizes and demobilizes its reserve and active units-units that are absolutely essential to winning this war.

In the last year the Army has mobilized and demobilized, deployed and redeployed more than 350,000 reserve and active component soldiers at Army installations. Army installations are the home to the force. They are where families and soldiers live, where soldiers train (the ranges, the maneuver areas), where children go to school and where reach-back capability resides for the forward-deployed units. Army installations are a vital part of winning the war on terrorism.

The Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Army approved a new Army environmental strategy in October 2004 to encourage land use and stewardship activities to continue and to be more fully integrated into business processes and base support services on post and in surrounding communities. The fundamental objective is to use a sustainable model to achieve common or mutually supported goals that effectively balance mission, community and environment.

Environmental challenges are growing, but the Army must be able to train as it fights, and live-fire training is absolutely essential. Environmentally induced restrictions are challenging to realistic preparation for combat. The Army has and will continue to address legislative, regulatory and administrative strategies to provide flexibility to accommodate military needs and provide environmental protection.

The second goal is to transform the Army, and Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker advises, "A rapidly changing world deals ruthlessly with organizations that do not change. ... We must constantly reshape ourselves to remain a relevant and useful member of the joint team."

Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey has also challenged the Army to "provide evolutionary change leading to revolutionary outcomes with major focus on the business side of the Army to keep pace with the ongoing transformation in how we fight."

The Army Installations and Environment team has transformed in fundamental ways to support the the needs of a changing Army. Since the start of this administration, it has established the Installation Management Agency (IMA) and added two new Deputy Assistant Secretaries of the Army (DASA). The DASAs for Environment, Safety, Occupational Health (ESOH) and Installations and Housing (IH) have been joined by the DASA for Privatization and Partnerships (P&P) and the DASA Infrastructure Analysis (IA).

The DASA (P&P) over-watches privatization efforts by transferring noncore functions and leveraging private capital and expertise to support Army initiatives. The residential communities initiative (RCI) is a tremendous soldier quality-of-life improvement and a great partnership with the private community that will help enable the Army to have programs and funding in place by 2007 to eliminate inadequate Army family housing. The program greatly improves family housing and ensures long-term sustainment of adequate housing through the use of partnerships with private expertise and capital in order to solve housing problems.

Another essential privatization program, utilities privatization, has transferred to the private sector more than 100 installation utility systems: water, wastewater, natural gas and electricity. There are currently more than $6 billion in unfunded requirements to provide necessary repairs to the eroded infrastructure of these systems on Army posts. Transferring these systems to the private sector will allow repairs to be done less expensively and better through the use of long-term contracts.

Our newest privatization initiative is the privatization of Army lodging (PAL). This initiative has the potential to revitalize installation transit lodging by forging partnerships with the private sector in order to upgrade more than 80 percent of the facilities that require major lodging renovation or replacement.