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Fort Hood, the "Great Place"
Fort Hood, the largest training post in the world, sprawls over 217,337 acres
(339 square miles) of Central Texas. There are more than 220 square miles of training
area, making it the only post in the United States capable of supporting two full
armored divisions, the First Cavalry Division and
the 4th Infantry Division.
Fort Hood borders Copperas Cove to the north and
east. Fort Hood was named after Confederate General John Bell Hood,
who gained recognition during the Civil War as the commander of the Texas Brigade.
Fort Hood is the state's largest employer. Approximately 45,000 soldiers are assigned
to Fort Hood. The large concentration of military dependents strongly influences
the area's business climate as well as the approximately 1,000 soldiers who separate from the service each month. With advanced
high-tech training, these soldiers provide an experienced and well-disciplined labor pool.
5,000 New Troops
Coming to Fort Hood in 2005
New Central Texas residents will bring millions to state
(This information
is excerpted from an article written by the Texas State Comptroller's Office,
"Fiscal Notes", January 2005. The changes indicated below are intended to either
localize the information for Copperas Cove or address the entire Central Texas
region, which is identified as the Killeen/Temple MSA. To access the original
article, go to:
http://www.window.state.tx.us/comptrol/fnotes/fn0501/army.html)
In 2005, 5,000 U.S. troops and their families will move to
a Central Texas community that sports street names like Hell on Wheels Avenue
and Tank Destroyer Boulevard.
The new soldiers and their families will call Fort Hood
home, and they will bring an additional $500 million to the... [Central Texas]
area. The base already contributes $3.9 billion to the Central Texas economy
each year, said Eloise Lundgren, a Fort Hood spokeswoman.
The new troops will form a brigade that will be able to
respond more quickly to world needs and can be added to other units based on
those needs, said Cecil Green, a Fort Hood spokesman.
The U.S. Congress scheduled a new round of Base
Realignments and Closures (BRAC) for 2005 and will determine if Fort Hood will
be the permanent home for the new unit. Until then, Fort Hood and the...
[Central Texas area] are preparing new roads, schools and homes.
Mobile muscle
Named for Confederate General John Bell Hood, the U.S. military first used the
site as temporary Camp Hood in 1942 to mobilize and train troops during World
War II.
The renamed Fort Hood became a permanent installation
in 1951 and is the only two-division post in the nation, housing both the 1st
Cavalry Division and the 4th Infantry Division, which captured former Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein in December 2003, Green said. The Army's 3rd Armored Corps
is also housed at Fort Hood and is the nucleus of the leadership headquarters
stationed in Iraq, said Patrick Connelly, a former Army captain who was
stationed at Fort Hood and now works in the Texas Comptroller's Fund Accounting
Division.
Fort Hood is home to 12 additional military units and
nearly 45,000 soldiers. Its specialty is firepower.
"Fort Hood has more of the army's firepower than any
other installation," Connelly said. "That is because Fort Hood is a mechanized
and armored hub. Basically, if you want to go to a Mecca for tankers or be a
mechanized infantry guy, you go to Fort Hood, Texas."
Central Texas advantage
Since 1942, the base and its personnel have been the backbone for the...
[Central Texas] economy.
"Over 50 percent of [the area's] jobs are Fort
Hood-related," said Fred Latham, a Killeen [Copperas Cove's neighbor to the
east] city councilman. "They are the major engine that drives this economy. Fort
Hood is our major industry."
...To prepare for the new troops, the base is quickly
remodeling older houses to accommodate larger military families, said John
Driver, quality manager with the Housing Office.
Military families are larger these days, Driver said.
Nearly 75 percent of today's soldiers are married, said Steve Moore, a retired
Army Sergeant and public information officer at Fort Hood.
The Housing Office concentrates on accommodating larger
families in four- and five-bedroom houses on the post, while working with...
[Central Texas communities] to provide one- and two-bedroom apartments in town
for single soldiers and smaller families, Driver said.
Latham estimates that nearly 65 percent of the 5,000
new troops will settle in Killeen, providing a tremendous boost for rental
apartments, houses and retail.
"Five thousand troops equates to about 12,500 family
members," Latham said.
Using Latham's rule of 65 percent, that's about 8,000
new residents buying cars and clothes and eating in restaurants. They will also
benefit from a September 2004 unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, well below the
statewide unemployment rate of 5.4 percent, according to the Texas Workforce
Commission.
Despite the deployment of both the 4th Infantry and the
1st Cavalry in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, the... [Central Texas] economy is booming.
Residents remembered the economic recession brought on by the first Gulf War and
were concerned when war broke out in Afghanistan in 2001 and in Iraq in 2002,
said Maggie Brewster, the command information officer.
"But there's been no downturn in the... [Central Texas]
economy," she said. "If you go away for a week, something new will be built."
A perfect fit
The base also keeps many Central Texas residents employed through various
off-base jobs...
In July 2004, Texas lawmakers pledged $20.5 million to
Fort Hood infrastructure repairs if the 5,000 troops were guaranteed to move to
the base. The money will be used to improve buildings on the base, as well as
roads and bridges that connect Fort Hood and the surrounding communities.
The additional funding marks a proactive stance that
Texas lawmakers are taking in anticipation of the 2005 BRAC.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense must submit a list of
potential base closures to the BRAC committee by May 2005. Under the BRAC
guidelines, some bases will be closed altogether, while others will take units
from different bases. Of the 17 active-duty bases in Texas, Fort Hood is the
largest and is one of the most significant army installations in the country,
Connelly said.
"You could look at the BRAC criteria for where you want
to put an installation and I would suspect you could check off every single one
of those blocks [for Fort Hood]," Connelly said. "It's not next to any
population center; the community around it supports non-encroachment on a
military installation. It has a long history [and] it's got wide-open terrain."
Tanks for the memories
Since 1942, Killeen has grown from a small farming community to a bustling city,
mirroring the rise of the Fort Hood population. The number of Fort Hood soldiers
and their families making a home in ... Central Texas propelled a ... [20]
percent increase in the... [Killeen/Temple MSA's] population from... [255,301]
in 1990 to... [312,952] in 2000, according to the 2000 U.S. Census...
Connelly suspects much of... [Central Texas']
population growth is due to former career soldiers staying in... [Central Texas]
when their service is up.
"The military community is a different kind of world,"
Connelly said. "The military community and the military itself tends to kind of
segregate itself from the rest of society. It is a very different way of life.
When folks spend a lot of time in that kind of culture, they like to stay with
what they know."
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Local Notes:
Based on the historical location of military personnel and their families (see
data below), Copperas Cove can expect nearly 20% of the 12,500 will live in
Copperas Cove.
"An increase of 2,500 residents added to a community of
30,000 is significant," said Carol Mills, executive director of the Copperas
Cove EDC. "Of course, the community is working to promote living in
Copperas Cove to these relocating soldiers and their families and we're hopeful
these efforts result in even more residents."
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