Army plans to expand
its Big Isle effort

The Pohakuloa Training Area
would receive improvements

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

HILO >> The Army is proposing to spend $234 million to improve and expand Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island.

The money would be spent on up to nine projects, including possible purchase of 23,000 acres of Parker Ranch land, said Maj. Gen. James Dubik, commander of the 25th Infantry Division and related Army units at Schofield Barracks.

Dubik and other military and civilian officials were in Hilo yesterday to explain how the proposal fits into the Army's plans to transform the 25th Infantry and other units across the country for greater mobility and firepower.

Besides the $234 million for the Big Island, an additional $459 million would be spent on Oahu, for a total of $693 million to be spent in 2005-2011, Dubik said.

Current military units are either light and easy to move but low in firepower or heavy with tanks, needing a lot of time to transport.

The Army plans a 30-year restructuring, Dubik said.

While that is under way, the three brigades of the 25th Infantry will be changed to "Interim Brigade Combat Teams," Dubik said. Each 3,000-person brigade will receive an extra 480 soldiers and 400 more armored vehicles.

Although none of these soldiers are stationed at Pohakuloa, they are periodically sent there for training. Pohakuloa has to be upgraded to train them, Dubik said.

The biggest change at Pohakuloa could be the addition of 23,000 acres of Parker Ranch land in a triangular area called Keamuku, where Saddle Road meets Mamalahoa Highway in West Hawaii.

Parker Ranch has been informally told of the Army's interest, but no specifics have been discussed, Dubik said. Parker trustee Carl Carlson has acknowledge the Army's interest but was noncommittal about it.

The Army's civilian director of transformation, Ronald Borne, said the Keamuku land has been grazed for many years, so there should be no endangered plants or historical sites there. But the Army will do a detailed environmental impact study during the next two years, he said.

Another project would be improving a tank "trail" from Kawaihae Harbor to Pohakuloa. The upgrade would allow the Army to keep many vehicles off public roads, Dubik said.

Mayor Harry Kim said, "I am for the project," providing it has environmental safeguards.

The son of immigrants displaced by the Korean War, Kim noted that that war caused 50,000 casualties.

He said he likes the new technologies to limit American casualties to be built into the interim force.

Besides the Big Island improvements, upgrades on Oahu are proposed for Schofield Barracks, the Makua and Kahuku Training Areas, the East Range above Wahiawa, and Wheeler Army Airfield.

The Honolulu areas are too small to allow for training of more than a company of 150 soldiers at a time, and no live-fire aircraft maneuvers can be done with them, Dubik said.

At Pohakuloa, up to a battalion with 500 soldiers can train at a time, with helicopters and planes conducting live firing at the same time, he said.