Georgia Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler urged the Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy to select Fort Benning as the Army’s fourth corps headquarters. In a letter sent last Thursday, the senators spoke in favor of Fort Benning, highlighting its existing training, support, and command facilities and its ability to quickly activate the new headquarters.
“We commend your decision to realign forces under a new corps headquarters in support of the National Defense Strategy and strongly recommend that you consider Fort Benning for its basing. Fort Benning is a crown jewel of the Army uniquely qualified to host the new corps headquarters,” wrote the senators.
The move could be a boon to the Columbus region, already home to some 100,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers, retirees, and civilian employees. The new headquarters would give a little boost to the region and further cement Fort Benning’s central role to the U.S. Army. The fourth corps headquarters could be easily absorbed into Fort Benning’s existing infrastructure, but would have a relatively small footprint. The current plans for the headquarters include more than 600 soldiers, a three-star general and a rotating Operational Command Post with about 200 soldiers in Europe.
“Fort Benning stands ready to meet all facility, deployment support infrastructure, and community support requirements needed for an October 2020 activation. As the home to the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence, Fort Benning provides unmatched training, support, and command facilities. It includes 26 million square feet of facilities and 102,000 acres of maneuver training areas capable of supporting all manner of maneuver operations, tactics, and training,” continued the senators.
Fort Benning is one of three finalists to host the headquarters, along with Fort Knox in Kentucky and Fort Drum in New York. As expected, those state’s delegations are also jumping onto the advocacy bandwagon. Secretary McCarthy may be unswayable by elected officials, but a little pressure can sometimes benefit. In Kentucky’s case, that pressure could come from Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – someone with a significant hand in the budget of said Army, and who may have been hinting at that in his own letter.
“As strong advocates for our nation’s military, we have been proud to support full funding for the defense budget in support of the selfless patriots in our all-volunteer force. As you consider potential headquarters locations that best meet the Army’s readiness needs, we ask that you keep Fort Knox’s many assets foremost in mind. Locating the new headquarters at Fort Knox would clearly provide a significant return on investment for the Army,” said McConnell, who was joined in his statement with his Kentucky Senate colleague Rand Paul and Fort Knox’s district Congressman Brett Guthrie.
The three bases are all relatively similar in size, hosting somewhere between 20-25,000 active-duty soldiers and then all the accompanying support staff, families and retirees.
It is unclear when the announcement for final selection will be made but the new corps is expected to be fully active before the end of the year.
