FORT CARSON — The Army will put a newly formed brigade combat team at Fort Carson and assign a second one permanently to the post, adding about 5,000 soldiers, officials said Wednesday.
The Army is adding four other brigade combat teams, two each at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Fort Stewart, Ga., plus eight support units at other posts.
The additions are part of a plan to expand the active-duty Army by about 65,000 soldiers. The new brigade is expected at Fort Carson by 2011. The other had been temporarily assigned to the post.
Members of Colorado’s congressional delegation praised the decision.
“We just have to have more men and women in uniform to do what we want them to do,” Democratic Rep. Mark Udall told The Associated Press.
Republican Sen. Wayne Allard said the expansion would bring about $50 million a year in government funding, plus about $500 million in construction.
“Today’s announcement is nothing short of great news for southern Colorado,” Allard said in a written statement.
Fort Carson’s total number of soldiers will be roughly 30,000.
Udall said Army Assistant Secretary Keith Eastin assured him the decision to add soldiers to Fort Carson is unrelated to the military’s controversial effort to expand its Piñon Canyon training site in southeastern Colorado, where the post’s soldiers get some of their training.
“He said the addition of the brigade combat team was not predicated on the expansion of Piñon Canyon,” Udall said.
The Army wants to nearly triple the size of that site to about 1,000 square miles. Some nearby ranch owners oppose the expansion, fearing it would force them to sell property against their will.
A $516 billion budget bill before Congress includes a one-year moratorium on expanding the training site.
