Officials say 6,500 more Soldiers will be on post compared to last summer

Fort Lewis preparing for summer population surge

Soldier population to near 30,000 as post welcomes units home from deployment

Northwest Guardian

This summer, post exchange and commissary patrons may find the stores a little more crowded, traffic may be a little thicker and unit operations officers may have to plan a little further ahead to use high-demand training facilities on post.

That’s because Fort Lewis will welcome about 6,500 Soldiers home from deployment between May and September, hiking the post’s troop population to almost 29,000 in what many are calling the “summer surge.”

But Fort Lewis garrison officials have been hard at work for eight months, planning to accommodate the returning units with many new unit buildings, facelifts for existing barracks and facilties, and and a delicately crafted plan to ensure Soldiers, families and units get the support they need during the surge.

“This summer we have the largest group of Soldiers from the global war on terror returning to Fort Lewis,” said Tom Knight, deputy garrison commander. “We are very proud of our Soldiers and grateful to have them home. Our priority now is to take care of our returning Soldiers and their families.

“Of course, as our units return, there will be more people using services on Fort Lewis. We hope everyone at Fort Lewis will have patience and understanding for any temporary inconveniences, and I know we’re all willing to do that on behalf of our returning warriors.”

This summer’s returns will mark the first time since many of the units arrived or were created at Fort Lewis that they’ve all been on post at the same time — meaning that the installation’s growth over the past few years will be keenly felt all at once in the coming months. However, Knight said that construction and planning are now resulting in new, better facilities and improvements to others. The results should be positive for everyone, he said.

“The on-post facility challenges associated with the summer surge are temporary,” he said.

“Military construction already planned or under way will provide the facilities required for all of our units, Soldiers and families,” Knight said. “Our single Soldiers will occupy renovated or, in many cases, brand new facilities when they return. Our privatized housing partner continues to develop our family housing neighborhoods.”

“And, for those who choose to live off the installation,” Knight said, “our Pacific Northwest neighbors have always made our troops and their families welcome.”

That’s not to say that the surge will be without some effects, Knight said — traffic, for example.

“We expect more traffic through our gates this summer,” he said. “We’ve been planing to monitor the traffic and implement changes at our gates to reduce delays. We are also working closely with our off-post counterparts, such as the Washington Department of Transportation, to develop additional strategies to mange the traffic flows.”

The summer’s population boom results from what Knight calls a “confluence” of repositioning units, others restructuring to meet the needs of the force and the arrival of large maneuver forces under the Army Force Generation plan.

The combination has, for a time, outdistanced the military construction plan — the schedule for building and renovating post housing and facilities. But building schedules will catch up with growth in the future, achieving again what planners call a steady state, the numbers facilities are designed to support.

In addition to barracks construction on North Fort for 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division units and 17th Fires Brigade, a number of MILCON projects are in varying stages of completion.

“We’re redoing Carey Theater,” Steve Perrenot, the Director of Public Works said. “It’s a $3 million project, close to halfway done. Nelson Recreation Center will be redone. Memorial and Cowan Stadiums will be redone along with the track ... French and Evergreen theaters are scheduled for upgrades.”

Money has been set aside for Soldiers Field House and its baseball fields as well as a number of youth sports fields on post. According to Knight and Perrenot, the next brigade to return from Iraq presents the most immediate priority and at the same time, begins resolution of the surge.

“(4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division) is the long pole in the tent right now,” Knight said. “When 4-2 comes back, that kind of completes those large elements that comprise the surge. So once we get them back in the door we think everything else is manageable.”

The Public Works Directorate has dedicated 20 employees for six weeks to scour the 20 4th Bde., 2nd Inf. Div. barracks buildings to make required repairs and light renovations now that other units temporarily housed there have vacated them.

“We’re checking mechanical, plumbing, electrical, security locks on windows and doors,” Perrenot said. “A lot are service orders. They’re doing a clean sweep so that when (the Soldiers) get back they won’t find that the lights are broken or the switches or plugs are broken.”

Workers are painting all the rooms, installing 2,500 sets of new blinds, laying down safety tread in the stairwells and painting the walls and will soon build three gazebos behind the barracks. The “shell game,” as Knight called it, of units temporarily occupying each others’ barracks while some units fill while others deploy, will continue for up to two years. But with major movements done this summer, those afterward should be positive moves.

“We’re not done with all the moves yet,” Knight said. “But we hope this summer to get the major unit movements on post done, and after that is should primarily be units assuming new facilities, which is a good thing.”

The concerns about barracks and facilities should not detract from the primary goal to prepare Soldiers for combat, the deputy said. That mission will continue to be a major focus.

“We will still train everybody on post and project them to war,” Knight said. “We need to do that.”

Units returning from theater while others prepare to go will continue to put pressure on training resources.

“It also means a necessity to make a greater use of Yakima Training Center,” Knight said, “because we’re reaching the limits of the capacity of Fort Lewis to sustain the population.”

Meanwhile, pressure on buildings and facilities will ease as construction projects are completed.

The deputy cautioned against undue pessimism while MILCON moves forward and plans unfold.

“There are no points of failure,” Knight said. “No unit is going to come back and find itself without barracks, without motor pool, without administration, stranded-at-the-airfield kind of thing.”

He took comfort in his belief that there is nothing more flexible or resilient, Knight said, than a Soldier and his or her family to weather common challenges.