[ OUR OPINION ]
Stryker brigade will be
major plus for HawaiiTHE first in a series of major military projects planned for Hawaii during the next decade has received formal Pentagon approval. Nearly 300 Stryker combat vehicles and 810 additional soldiers are projected by 2006, and more than $100 million already has been committed to build infrastructure to support the transformation and expansion of the 25th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade to a Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The move will be a major boost to Hawaii's economy and will solidify the islands' importance as the U.S. military outpost in the Pacific.
THE ISSUE
The Defense Department has approved plans to assign Stryker combat vehicles to Hawaii for use in responding to military needs abroad.
Several environmental groups have opposed the Stryker plan, arguing that the unit will be incompatible with Hawaii's limited land area, sensitive environment and concentration of cultural sites. The opposition should not delay the timetable, which calls for the 2nd Brigade to begin its transformation and expansion to 4,000 soldiers when it returns from Iraq next spring.
The military has become increasingly cognizant of environmental concerns, and the Defense Department last month presented the Stryker program with an environmental excellence award normally given to military installations. The 19-ton, eight-wheeled vehicle is designed to catch spent shell casings and to trap fluids that normally are released to the environment. Its design also has eliminated many uses of chromium and cadmium, reducing hazardous waste.
"We are not only responsible for being good stewards of taxpayers' money but good stewards of the environment," said Lt. Gen. Joseph Yakovac, military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics and technology. "It's not glamorous, but we need to save the world for future generations' use."
The Army's 3,000-page environmental impact statement for the Stryker brigade in Hawaii foresees increased dust problems, but it will combat them by using construction materials that bond dust and gravel on roads used by the vehicles. It plans to address noise problems associated with 155-millimeter howitzers by monitoring weather conditions that affect the way sound travels. Brigades generally use 105 mm howitzers.
The economic consequences for Hawaii are enormous. Nearly $700 million will be spent on military construction projects, including roads on the Big Island and in Leeward Oahu, where Makua Valley is used as a training range, to keep military convoys off Farrington Highway. New buildings and facilities will be built at Schofield Barracks, which will expand by 1,402 acres. The Army plans to purchase 23,000 acres from Parker Ranch on the Big Island for use in practicing multi-vehicle maneuvers on what have been cattle pastures seven miles from the nearest civilian residents.
Sen. Daniel Inouye has said that the Stryker brigade, in addition to an upgrade of Ford Island and other military housing, could pump billions of dollars into the state's economy during the next decade. Inouye and Rep. Neil Abercrombie have been instrumental in obtaining this economic cornucopia.
