Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, visited Ft. Campbell this week to address soldiers and installation commanders about two topics straight from global headlines, Ebola and the ordered force drawdown. Here is an excerpt of his remarks, courtesy David Snow with The Eagle Post:
The article went on to report that Secretary Hagel told the soldiers that Ft. Campbell "has unique capabilities that no other institution in the world has."
Why, then, is the installation facing potentially enormous troop drawdowns? The Secretary seems to describe a global military theater that needs all the might we can provide.
The national security concerns alone warrant maintaining current service member levels, before you even begin an analysis of the relatively less important (but impossible to overstate) economic peril to West Kentucky and North Central Tennessee.
The Secretary, with all due respect, appears to be speaking from both sides of his mouth. I do not approve.
UPDATED: Today's news that the 159th Combat Aviation Brigade, stationed at Ft. Campbell, will be deactivated. Ft. Campbell will see a 2400 troop reduction by the end of the 2015 fiscal year. Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, and Rep. Ed Whitfield released this joint statement today (Nov. 20th, 2014), one that I fully agree with: