HONOLULU — The Army on Tuesday said it has made a final decision to base a Stryker brigade at Schofield Barracks on Oahu and to train the unit at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island, citing strategic advantages provided by the islands.
The conclusion comes even though environmentalists have raised concerns about the unit’s 19-ton Stryker vehicles damaging Hawaii’s fragile environment and cultural sites.
The service first decided to base the brigade in Hawaii several years ago as part of an Army-wide effort to be ready for rapid deployment to hotspots around the world. In 2005, it started transforming a light infantry brigade at Schofield into a Stryker brigade, a unit of 4,000 soldiers and 310 eight-wheeled Stryker vehicles.
But the Army was forced to reconsider its decision in response to a federal appeals court order. The judges said the Army needed to prepare an environmental impact statement that thoroughly analyzed alternatives to basing the force in Hawaii before it reached a conclusion.
The Army study, which was completed in February, considered basing the brigade in Alaska or Colorado.
On Tuesday, the Army said in a press release Hawaii was selected because the islands allow the military to meet its strategic defense and national security needs.
Lt. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. Army, Pacific, said the decision would send a powerful signal to friends and enemies that the U.S. is committed to its interests in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The Stryker brigade’s capabilities significantly increase our ability to win any conflict in the Pacific,” Mixon said. “We know that Hawaii has limited space and beautiful natural resources. We will continue to protect them.”
Hawaii’s Democratic U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka praised the announcement, saying they believed the Army evaluated and weighed environmental and security considerations when making its decision.
“We can and must find a balance between preserving Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources, and our need to make sure our brave men and women in the military have the training they need to fulfill their missions,” Akaka said.
U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, said he “looked forward to reading the decision in detail and understanding the Army’s rationale.”
David Henkin, an Earthjustice lawyer who represented environmentalists and Native Hawaiian groups in the court case, said a preliminary review of the Army’s decision provided some welcome news.
He pointed to the part where the Army said it would consider building a live-fire training range alternative to Makua Military Reservation, which is located in a valley Native Hawaiians consider sacred.
Henkin’s clients had been concerned that the Stryker brigade would occupy space that could be used for live-fire training instead of Makua Military Reservation.
The Army’s official Record of Decision addressed that concern, Henkin said.
“It’s a very positive development because it indicates that finally there is an openness to at least evaluating alternative locations to Makua,” Henkin said.
The Army considers Makua vital to soldier readiness but Native Hawaiian groups value the remote valley for its temples and other sacred and cultural sites. Environmentalists point to several dozen endangered species that inhabit the valley.
Henkin said he was still reviewing the rest of the document to see whether it provides enough information for the reasons behind Hawaii’s selection.
The brigade will also train at Oahu locations, including Schofield Barracks, Dillingham Military Reservation, Kahuku Training Area, Kawailoa Training Area and Wheeler Army Airfield.
Note: It's imperative to note that the fake 'State of Hawaii' needs to address nuclear isotopes in it's environment.
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Hawaii had a change in Army Command in the middle of the stream. Why? The Nuclear Regulatory Agency said on January 13, 2010 that they will use 'enforcements' to stop the military from transfering nuclear isotopes from Schofield Barracks to Waianae at a Docket hearing with the Atomic Energy Commission and the United States Pentagon. Is the Department of Land and Natural Resource the 'enforcement'?
I personally spoke to William Aila before I left for the Hilo to go before the AEC. He was for clean up of the millions of arsenal at Schofield and Waianae Coast. I was not! Why? The clean up was to excuse the military from injuring the people of Waianae. We have the highest Lukemia rate among children in Maili. The medical profession recommendation are that parents remove themselves from Maili and relocate elsewhere.
Maili is where the arsenal was dumped by the military an 'out of sight' and 'out of mind' reasoning which is typical of the military outcome at our past ten grueling years of hearings in the Waianae community that I have attended and opposed to the continued use of depleted uranioum in Hawaii.
It was clear that the military reasoning for 'friendly' procurement contract's was to keep their dirty fat-little secret--secret! And to continue contaminating the people of Waianae Coast in the form of Cancer'ed DNA. After all it is already damaged--the data collection already speaks to the already contamination intergenerationally.
Native Hawaiians with 50% plus bloodquantum for the past five generations are victums of high cancer rate. And with the help of CNHA that dense count will disperse or aggregate in the passing of the Akaka Bill. Both articles recently published in the Star Advertiser Walter Heen and John Carroll speaks to it's no bloodquantum defintion as a local bipartisan gentlemen's agreement.
Like hell if the bloodquantum is a common agreement among political looser's! From the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the run-for-governor's race, both dirty dogs licked their own okole's on this one and gave kisses to the populace-- simply put! Dog breath is more like it--political hot air.
Is the military concern with Hawaii's environment, Hawai'i's health and safety risk, or spending in Hawaii on a 365 day holiday? Military personel are always vacationing in Hawaii, never really taken it seriously that they have hot spots in the world. It's a place to get away from the war front and rest and recuperate before leaving for another tour. In answer to my question sure, they are concern. So, concern that the Pentagon was recruited to decide that the nuclear isotopes were going to be removed from military bases and taken (trucked) to civilian sites such as Waianae Coast and Land fills that are in every Ahupua'a or communties in Waianae. Taken to private surface dumpsites without any concern for civilian population especially the Native Hawaiian community.
There is more to talk about such as the April 2011 clean up of millions of UXO's off the coast of Waianae as a 'friendly' jestor between the Military and the DLNR. As for the civilians the cancer rate in Waianae will spike not only higher, but a wider spread of sicknesses for the bottom feeders of Waianae's poor and poverty. In this case it's ethnic cleansing since this is a highly populated area for the native Hawaiian communties. Walter Heen does not speak for the dense native Hawaiian communities such as Waianae.
The real bottomline to this assertion is that the DLNR is nothing but a strawman in the game of the Stryker Brigade--something to appease the people of the Waianae Coast. Hawaii is a vacationing spot, and Waianae should be put off limits not only to military personel--said the Pentagon Tad Davis-but also to all civiliam populations. Like I said after Jan 13, 2010--we need an 'exit plan' as in de-occupation.
Army to keep Stryker brigade in Hawaii
By Audrey McAvoy - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Apr 16, 2008 11:04:38 EDT