A shortage of troops at the battlefronts in both Iraq and Afghanistan have prompted changes at the U.S. Army Reserve Command at Fort Lawton.
One big change is that the resident 70th Regional Readiness Command unit is being eliminated, said Fort Lawton spokeswoman Pam Garrison. The other is that a new battalion has been formed at the Magnolia base.
The new 344-member 494th Combat Support Battalion was activated at Fort Lawton on Sept. 16, and it will "enable, enhance and protect the operational freedom of action of the supported force," according to an Army press release. "It's going to be a deployable unit," Garrison said.
Many of the soldiers will come from other units, including the 70th, and some of the troops for the new battalion will come from the 2122nd and the 164th, she said. "But I'm sure there will be other slots that need to be filled from elsewhere."
The 2122nd handles garrison-support duties such as housekeeping, cooking and laundry for active troops in war zones, while the 164th will handle maintenance duties, Garrison explained.
The new 494th battalion will include engineers who are often on the front line, and while it's not the Army's intent, the troops in the new battalion could end up looking for "bad guys," she said.
Garrison likened it to robbing Peter to pay Paul. "It's a shortage in our units the way it's set up," she said. "We've just lost our medical units and military-intelligence unit."
But Garrison stressed that the goal of the change is to create a smaller, more compact Army. "The Army Reserve has moved from a force in reserve to a true partner with the Army," the press release adds.
Garrison-a civilian who is losing her job soon-is scrambling to help make the changes, and the job isn't easy. "It's mind-boggling because you're doing this during a war," she said. "The numbers are making me crazy."
Troops stationed at the military base in Magnolia are concerned about the reorganization, according to Garrison. "Well, the soldiers are worried," she said. "Many of them will need to retrain."[[In-content Ad]]
