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By William Cole, Honolulu Advertiser
As part of the biggest reorganization of the Army since World War II, Schofield Barracks will add 1,000 soldiers for its Stryker Brigade and another 1,000 for other new units, and more troops will likely be on the way to Hawai'i for years to come.
The Schofield troop arrivals are in conjunction with plans for bringing 300 Stryker armored vehicles to Hawai'i, a new Iraq deployment, a major housing renovation and dozens of unit deactivations and activations under a drive to give brigades more self-contained firepower and enable them to be more expeditionary like the Marines.
Ron Borne, the director of transformation for the Army in Hawai'i, said a former division commander likened the evolution to changing a car tire while the car is moving.
"I think we all agree that at this point it is busy (here), it's a hectic time and it's a historical and impacting time," Borne said.
An increasing focus on the Pacific and instabilities in the region have propelled additions such as the Stryker Brigade and consideration of an aircraft carrier for Hawai'i. A decision on the latter is expected out of the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review in February.
A recent joint U.S.-Japan defense agreement noted that the "U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region is a core capability that is indispensable to regional peace and security."
The 1,000 new soldiers for the Stryker Brigade were announced in late September. The Army has been working through the transformation to a lighter, faster-responding force first with the announcement of seven Stryker Brigades, and more recently on an overall increase from 33 to 43 brigades and an improvement in war-fighting capability.