Chamber of Commerce Hawaii’s Military Affairs Council members and Big Island legislators recently attended the Army’s annual live-fire exercise at Pohakuloa Training Area.
The purpose of the orientation was to illustrate the importance of the site for training of Hawaii-based military units. PTA is the only location in the state large enough and suited to conduct the live-fire event, which focused on training members of the Hawaii National Guard’s artillery units.
The PTA installation can support up to 2,300 military personnel and even more with a tent city. PTA’s firing ranges allow units to conduct necessary small-arms and crew-served weapons familiarization training and qualification, as well as artillery and mortar live fire. Through the years, PTA’s ranges and training areas have helped Army, Marine, Air Force and Navy units maintain their combat readiness. Most recently, 25th Infantry Division units, Kaneohe-based Marines and Hawaii Army National Guard soldiers prepared at PTA for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
PTA has more than 50 professionals dedicated to preserving and protecting endangered and threatened plants and safeguarding cultural resources. It is a premier military training area in the Pacific region. Units from all U.S. military services, as well as allied militaries, train at PTA because of its realistic and unique training opportunities.
Training is one of the core components the Army is reviewing as it assesses its installations around the world. As a result of overall budget cuts, the Army announced earlier this year that it was looking at a number of bases across the country from which to cut forces. Schofield Barracks and Fort Shafter in Hawaii were among them.
In a worst-case scenario, 19,800 Army personnel could be eliminated from Fort Shafter and Schofield Barracks. This would be a loss of 34 percent of Shafter’s working population and 70 percent of Schofield’s. In addition, Hawaii could lose an additional 30,035 family members, or roughly 5 percent of Honolulu’s population. The estimated loss of income to Hawaii’s economy in such a scenario is $1,352,402,000. The subsequent reduction of $1.3 billion in sales in Hawaii would result in a loss in sales tax receipts of $9.2 million.
The direct and indirect impacts of overall military expenditures are reported to generate $14.7 billion into Hawaii’s economy, creating more than 102,000 jobs for residents that collectively report household incomes around $8.7 billion.
Moreover, military expenditures totaling $8.8 billion annually has elevated the defense industry and military procurement contracts amount to about $2.3 billion annually, making it a prime source of contracting opportunities for hundreds of Hawaii’s small businesses. These expenditures touch every sector of our economy from STEM to education, housing, construction, retail, health care, agriculture and sustainable energy.