Skip navigation.
Home
   Candidate & issue information

Oahu Army Downsizing with AL Frenzel

Hawaii Political Info introduction: The Oahu Army downsizing proposed in late June by the Department of Defense is potentially one of the biggest beneficial events to occur in Hawaii ever IF handled the right way. But it won't happen unless our Hawaii congressional delegation (two U.S. Senators and two U.S. Representatives), our Hawaii state officials and the people of Hawaii themselves see what's happening, get the big picture, get behind the right kind of downsizing and, importantly, do it quickly. AL Frenzel, retired Army colonel who just so happens to have the right background on Army force restructuring, explains the huge benefits to Hawaii and outlines what needs to be done to see it through.

Army downsizing handled the usual way, fighting the cuts, will be just another poorly handled event and lost opportunity in Hawaii's history.

After watching this video, you will be among those who understand what's at stake.

---

Published on YouTube September 26, 2014

YouTube introduction: Please consider signing the Petition asking our Legislators to embrace the Army Downsizing opportunity. The petition link is in GREEN on the right side of the www.oc4ad.com webpage.

What does the OCAD stand for?

Late in June of 2014, the Department of Defense (DoD) released its Quadrennial Defense Review for 2014 (QDR 2014). DoD releases a QDR every four years as a way of articulating its strategic direction and providing end strength and force structure decisions for the Services to implement over a fixed period of time. The DoD is facing ever-increasing fiscal challenges and is unable to sustain itself at current and future levels of funding projected by the Congress. In the case of the Army, QDR 2014 calls for a reduction of as many as 130,000 active duty Army soldiers world-wide. To meet this fiscally constrained personnel cap the Army identified bases within 19 States to absorb these cuts; Hawaii is one of the States on the Army’s cut list. Bases in Hawaii now being considered by the Army to meet these cuts include Schofield Barracks (16,000) and Fort Shafter (3,800). The impacts of these cuts are significant, but the members of the Oahu Council for Army Downsizing (OCAD) see most of these as positive impacts that will greatly improve the quality of life for Hawaii’s people, particularly the Hawaiian community on Oahu and throughout Hawaii Nei.

The OCAD supports and actively advocates for the downsizing of Army Forces on Oahu. The OCAD does not consider the bulk of the Army’s forces on Oahu to be strategically located since these forces do not have readily available airlift or sealift to support their transport to anywhere in the Pacific as quickly as may be needed. Moreover, the OCAD believes the Army on Oahu lacks critically needed ‘forced entry’ capability to allow it to enter hostile environments, a capability already possessed by the US Marines presently on Oahu and throughout the Pacific. The OCAD believes taxpayers cannot afford to pay for redundant forces competing to do the same job and redundant, geographically isolated forces occupying critical lands and consuming valuable resources that are important to the State of Hawaii and the Hawaiian community.

The OCAD wants the people of Hawaii and Oahu to understand the goodness that can occur if the Army is downsized in the quantities proposed by DoD. The OCAD believes the cuts proposed should occur in the near term and that the following bases and geographic areas be returned to the State of Hawaii: Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Army Airfield, Makua Valley, Dillingham Military Reservation, and Kolekole pass with unimpeded access on Lualualei Naval Road.

The OCAD believes the DoD’s recommendation for cuts provides a ‘once–in–a–century’ opportunity for Hawaii Nei; if military forces on Oahu are not cut during this round of force structure cuts, then nothing will change on Oahu militarily — there will never be another round of cuts like this for Hawaii in any of our lifetimes.

The worst case scenario would be for Hawaii’s Congressional Delegation to naively negotiate a compromise deal with other State Legislators to reduce the projected personnel cuts on Oahu (i.e. only 10,000 personnel cuts versus 19,800). Because any cuts smaller than what is proposed by the Army will allow the Army to retains its current facilities on Oahu at the status quo; resulting in NO LONG TERM BENEFITS FOR THE PEOPLE OF HAWAII. This would be unforgiveable!


Note: HPI did not make a typo in the title, AL is spelled with two capital letters.

Link:

Oahu Army Downsizing [Hawaii Political Info] (Collection of articles, videos & online information)