Reference no: EM133212308

The garrison commander appointed you to lead this work on behalf of the Fort McCollum senior leadership. The brigade commander personally selected you to work closely with the installation staff representatives on this problem and represent your unit's interests.

General Background

Eleven years ago, the Army activated the 215th Fires Brigade at Fort McCollum. The primary mission of the 215thFires Brigade is providing reinforcing field artillery rocket and missile fires to tactical and operational level units. This includes ensuring the training and operational readiness of two high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) field artillery battalions. The 215th Fires Brigade consists of over 1800 Soldiers and employs a significant number of full-time and part-time civilian contractors. When including family members, this number increases from approximately 3,500 to over 4,000. Most families live in the greater Broadhurst and Walker communities surrounding Fort McCollum.

In the preceding 11 years, as you know, the two HIMARS battalions have completed rocket live fire training at Camp Ukala. While Camp Ukala does provide a first class training area and range live fire capability, it requires units to make a 160-mile trip one way from Fort McCollum on the other side of Hunger Pass, a mountain pass that is often hazardous to cross in inclement weather. This is most problematic during the period of mid to late December to late March, i.e. winter. Consequently, this tends to increase competition with other Fort McCollum units during the other months of the year.

Over the last eight years or so, the 215th Fires Brigade advocated establishing a firing point approved for rocket live fire training on Fort McCollum proper. The installation staff accomplished some preliminary work identifying Porter Firing Point as a suitable and feasible location due to the firing point's proximity to the artillery impact area and associated surface danger zone considerations. See appendix A to student reading L111RC. The staff studied all other potential firing points and all of the other points failed due to surface danger zone safety considerations.

Recent Developments 

Over the past four years, the Department of Defense and the Army have operated under reduced funding. This has made maintaining T1 readiness levels challenging. Recently, the Pentagon, thru Installation Management Command, revealed it is studying the option of moving the 215th Fires Brigade to an installation more favorable to live fire rocket training in an effort to reduce systemic training costs. 

The Pentagon also communicated to the installation, if a HIMARS capable firing point on Fort McCollum is approved within the next six to nine months, maintaining the 215th Fires Brigade as a tenant unit is likely.

215th^th Fires Brigade

The HIMARS battalions are required to conduct live rocket fires two times a year, to include completing all firing tables and supporting training tasks.

The unit training cost described above averages over 250K dollars per battalion, per trip. Taken together, accomplishing these training requirements depletes 75% of the current 215th annual budget.

Additional concerns expressed and emphasized by the 215th Brigade command team include:

1. The combination of a sole location (Camp Ukala) and sometimes-risky winter travel conditions, limit unit training flexibility, and in turn increase competition among units for Camp Ukala training areas and ranges. This training area and range scheduling friction includes joint partners as well. For example, the Air Force frequently seeks to schedule the Camp Ukala impact area for low altitude dumb bomb practice.
2. Although somewhat embarrassing to admit, the overland road march requirement to Camp Ukala breaks the artillery battalions' equipment. The unit(s) maintenance readiness rate drops to 40-50% on pacing items each training deployment. Line haul is not financially feasible.
3. The command sergeant major assesses unit morale, on average, suffers as a result of these bi-annual training deployments. He indicates Soldiers fundamentally see this as training we should be able to accomplish closer to home, much like the tube artillery units.
4. Approving the HIMARS capable firing point helps remediate a number of unit and post concerns. Notably, it creates the opportunity for a less budget draining approach to maintaining unit readiness on both field artillery training tasks and equipment maintenance.

Commanding General Guidance

LTG Parmenter again emphasized the criticality of Fort McCollum's relationship with our surrounding communities. He often refers to the link between that relationship and its influence on recruiting quality Soldiers. He expects an open and transparent conversation with our neighbors. LTG Parmenter enthusiastically addresses training and readiness. It is his primary focus. He visits and inspects training with greater frequency than any CG the long-serving post civilians can remember. The CG obviously desires to avoid losing the 215^th Fires Brigade to another post. He believes approving HIMARS live firing on Fort McCollum is in everyone's interest.

Question:

As directed by the CG, you and your team scheduled discussions with invited Gorski county council members and Cahulawassee tribal representatives to develop a mutually workable solution that best account for the concerns of all parties. Prepare to brief the garrison commander and 215^th Fires Brigade Commander on the results of your meeting