Leaders tout Fort Eustis' importance to Army as reason for minimal cut
City and community leaders expressed relief after the Army announced Thursday it would cut fewer than 100 people from Fort Eustis over the next two years as part of an effort to trim the Army's ranks by 40,000.
They had been bracing for cuts of up to 4,200 at Fort Eustis.
Only 94 soldiers are on the chopping block, according to Lt. Col. Richard Stebbins, a spokesman for the Newport News post. The figure comes as a happy surprise after the Army spent more than a year looking at 3,400 active duty soldiers and 750 civilians to cut.
"While any cuts impact the Army's overall mission," Stebbins said, "here at Fort Eustis, we are happy that it didn't cut us as deeply as it did other installations."
The reduction at Fort Eustis represents less than 1 percent of the post's workforce totaling 10,382, of which about 3,696 are active duty. Installations in Georgia, Texas, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii are dealing with the loss of more than 1,000 soldiers.
"People are our most valuable resource," Col. William Galbraith, 733rd Mission Support Group commander at Eustis, said in a statement. "While 94 cuts are minimal in the big picture, these people are still an integral part of Joint Base Langley-Eustis family and have made valuable contributions to the mission here."
Mayor McKinley Price said he was pleased with Thursday's announcement, which could have been detrimental to the community if the cuts were as high as earlier feared.
"It just recognizes the important role that Fort Eustis plays not only in the local community but in the Army community as a whole," Price said.
Craig Quigley, a retired rear admiral and executive director of Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, agreed.
"The value is clearly recognized by the Department of the Army," Quigley said.
Eustis provides leadership training and policy development for the rest of the Army at the Training and Doctrine Command. The post is also home to other key units, such as the 128th Aviation Brigade that trains crew members that maintain all Army helicopters.
These areas are not easy to cut, Quigley said. "If I do, I've shot myself in the foot," he said.
Cuts across the Army were primarily made to operational units — just as they were in 2013, when Eustis lost more than 330 positions as part of a restructuring of the 7th Transportation Brigade, one of the busiest units in the Army. Headquarters and training units, such as those at Fort Eustis, saw fewer reductions, primarily because of the vital role they play to the Army, according to Sen. Tim Kaine's office.
Stebbins said that changes at Fort Eustis will include:
•Inactivating the engineering diving team and a transportation detachment.
•Reducing some military and civilian positions within the Training and Doctrine Command and in the 93rd Signal Brigade.
•Converting some civilian jobs to military positions within TRADOC's Combined Field Operating Agency.
Other installations in the state were hit deeper than Eustis, according to Kaine's office. Fort Belvoir is to lose about 250 soldiers, and another 127 soldiers are being cut at Fort Lee. These changes are slated to take place by the end of 2018.
Mike Kuhns, president and CEO of the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, said the community has to continue to look for other activities and opportunities to enhance the mission and add value at Eustis.
"We dodged a bullet," Kuhns said. "And that doesn't mean that we let our defenses down."
Kuhns suggested recruiting more Army units to Eustis or expanding the post's role.
The reductions are being driven by cost-cutting measures and a goal to reduce the Army's end-strength from a war-time high of 570,000 to 450,000 active-duty soldiers by 2019. But more cuts could be coming. The Army is looking to cut another 17,000 civilians from the payroll. That round of cuts will be announced later this year, according to the offices of Kaine and Sen. Mark Warner.
Even deeper reductions loom if the defense budget doesn't meet the required spending caps and if the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration return in 2016, reducing end-strength further to 420,000.
Warner said Thursday's announcement should be a "wake-up call" to his congressional colleagues.
"While I welcome the news that the Army has reversed earlier plans that could have resulted in thousands of job cuts at Fort Eustis and Fort Lee, I am mindful that we must get serious about getting our budget house in order," Warner said in a statement. "While some drawdown in our military force levels is to be expected as the U.S. winds down its combat role in Iraq and Afghanistan after many years, our military leaders should be able to make decisions based on strategic needs and not based on senseless and arbitrary budget caps."
Kaine called it "crisis budgeting" and noted that the decision to cut Army manpower was made prior to the emergence of Islamic State, Russia's aggression in Ukraine, rising tensions in the South China Sea and the Ebola crisis.
"It's Congress' obligation to provide appropriate and predictable budgetary support to our military, as well as the nondefense agencies that are critical to solving these complex national security challenges," Kaine said.
Airmen at Langley Air Force Base are next on the chopping block. The Air Force has its own cuts coming later this year, with Langley slated to lose as many as 750 positions.
