Posted on: Thursday, July 8, 2004
Stryker approval means 28 projects for Hawai'i
| • | Strykers coming to Hawai'i |
By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
The Army will start this fall with the first of 28 projects on O'ahu and the Big Island to remake the 2nd Brigade at Schofield Barracks into a fast-attack unit built around the new Stryker vehicles.
The projects will cost $693 million and the transformation will bring 291 eight-wheeled Stryker armored vehicles to O'ahu starting in 2006. The revamped 2nd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) should be operational by 2007.
The formal approval of the Stryker plan was announced by the Army yesterday after completion of an environmental review.
The Stryker plan has been called the biggest Army project in Hawai'i since World War II, but it was surpassed monetarily by a $5.1 billion Army housing contract signed last month.
The Army will be seeking competitive bids for the Stryker projects at a time when labor will be in high demand, not only for Army housing privatization, but also for similar efforts by the Navy, Marines and Air Force.
Two of the projects expected this fall — work on a new qualification range at Schofield and negotiations for the acquisition of 1,400 acres south of the base — won't create a lot of jobs. Three separate firing ranges will be consolidated into one range.
But the 2005 fiscal year beginning in October will see plenty of activity. Among the additions:
Ron Borne, the Army's Stryker transformation manager, said the project will require plenty of labor from residents.
"Our fears are, we'll be competing with everybody else and ourselves" for labor, he said.
In particular, the state is suffering from a shortage of heavy-equipment operators, he said.
"So the unions are desperately trying to catch up with training operators on certain pieces of equipment," Borne said.
The project includes 49 miles of private trails on O'ahu and the Big Island for Stryker use, six new firing ranges, two airfield upgrades and support facilities including a virtual war-fighting trainer.
Some projects, such as the construction of a trail from Kawaihae to Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, and a trail from Schofield to Dillingham Airfield, won't start until 2009 or later, meaning the Stryker vehicles will have to share public roads before then.
Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, agreed to the "preferred alternative" for the Stryker brigade over two other options: acquiring only 100 acres next to Schofield, or scrapping the project.
Campbell said the Army has spent more than $50 million in the past five years in Hawai'i on environmental and cultural preservation. He said the Army is prepared to spend up to $40 million during the next five years to mitigate environmental effects of the Stryker brigade's presence in the Islands.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka said he was pleased to learn of the Stryker decision. "I firmly believe that a balance can be obtained between preserving Hawai'i's natural and cultural resources and meeting our military's training needs."
The Defense Department in December agreed to the Stryker brigade for Hawai'i, the fifth of seven planned nationwide.
The 3,000-page environmental review, which includes 2,000 community comments, states that 1,736 tons of dust would be generated from increased vehicle use, an increase of 81 percent.
The Army said there would be significant effects on cultural and biological resources, but that mitigation efforts could reduce them.
About 810 soldiers would be added to create the 3,500-member Stryker brigade.
About a half-dozen opponents of the Stryker brigade coming to Hawai'i tried to get into yesterday's press conference at Fort Shafter, but said they were prevented from attending.
"I think that's pretty consistent with the Army's practice in the past in trying to keep out voices of dissent and opposition to the program," said Kyle Kajihiro, program director of the American Friends Service Committee.
Two soldiers out of Fort Lewis, Wash., who recently served with the Stryker brigade in Mosul, Iraq, said at the Fort Shafter meeting they like the 20-ton vehicles, which can hit speeds of 70 mph on the highway.
With the addition of slat armor that looks like a catcher's mask around the exterior of the Strykers, the vehicles have taken at least five hits from rocket-propelled grenades without fatalities.
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
