3rd ACR moving to Ft. Hood

By Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain NewsJune 24, 2005
COLORADO SPRINGS - Fort Carson will be host to one of the most modern divisions in the Army when the 4th Infantry Division returns to its longtime home after an 11-year absence.
The 4th, based at Fort Carson from 1970 to 1995, will bring its 19,000-plus troops to Colorado Springs in fall 2006, after its next yearlong tour in Iraq begins about October, Army Secretary Francis Harvey announced Wednesday. With units already at the post or scheduled to arrive, Fort Carson's troop strength is expected to reach nearly 27,000, compared with about 15,000 now.
In conjunction with the division's move, the 5,300-member 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment will move to Fort Hood, Texas. That could come when its current Iraq deployment is completed next March.
In Army logistics, the moves make sense by consolidating armor units at Fort Hood and an infantry division at Fort Carson.
"It will be like forces in like locations," said Army spokesman Paul Boyce at the Pentagon.
The Army had split the 4th Infantry Division in 1995, keeping one brigade at Fort Carson when it moved the rest to Fort Hood in 1995. That same year, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, a bigger, heavier unit with more tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles than an infantry brigade, moved to Fort Carson from Fort Bliss, Texas.
Now, the 3rd ACR will join the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood after the 4th Infantry departs.
Over the past year, the 4th Infantry Division has been reorganizing along the Army's new "modular" concept, making each 3,800-soldier brigade more independent without having to move as part of an entire division.
Operations such as reconnaissance, military police and security, signal corps, engineering and logistics that were once controlled by the division are being parceled out to the brigades. The change is designed to make the Army more flexible, able to deploy in smaller or larger numbers as situations warrant around the world.
The 4th Division is also fielding all new tanks and has refitted weapons systems with the most modern command, control and communications equipment available.
At Fort Carson, the announcement of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment's move to Fort Hood was accompanied by Army assurances that families will not be moved while the regiment is currently deployed in Iraq.
"This announcement is not a cause for concern," said Fort Carson spokesman Lt. Col. David Johnson. "We're not moving families. They're staying here until their spouses come home."
In Colorado Springs, though, preparations have been under way for months for expansion at Fort Carson, even before Wednesday's announcement of the division's return.
The division's move was greeted as good news by civic and business leaders who predicted an influx of $500 million to $700 million in new Army payroll, and perhaps $1 billion in construction on post to accommodate the new division.
Outside the post, the Army and local leaders have already identified two road improvement projects costing more than $200 million to ease expected congestion around the post.
"This is not a surprise to the community. In fact, we had projected growth in the military and hoped for it," said Mike Kazmierski, a former Fort Carson garrison commander and now interim CEO at the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp. "And the impacts to the community are all manageable."