Fort Lewis sees growth, change

FORT LEWIS — Before bombs dropped on Baghdad in 2003, Fort Lewis already was on the forefront of change in the Army, developing and fielding a new, cutting-edge combat brigade.

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And little around the installation has remained the same since.

Like other military posts, Fort Lewis has adjusted to the demands of fighting two protracted conflicts

five years in Iraq and nearing seven in Afghanistan. Those demands include improving the care of wounded soldiers and increasing the number of services and programs available to families to help them through the stress of long periods of separation.

Some changes are unique to Fort Lewis, including an assessment program to ensure that any lingering effects from combat aren't ignored. The war has accelerated the development of the Stryker combat brigades; three of the Army's seven Stryker brigades are based at Fort Lewis.

Growth on the post

The change most visible to South Sound is the population growth at the Army post.

In five years, Fort Lewis has grown by more than 6,000 soldiers, largely because of the Army's decision to establish a third Stryker brigade there.

Sometime in the next three years, the active-duty population will top 30,000 because of the Army's efforts to increase the active-duty force, close or combine other installations, and return soldiers deployed overseas.

"I think we can say some of the growth would have occurred whether we were an Army at war or not," Joe Piek, a spokesman at the Army post, said.

But there's little doubt the war has brought urgency to those initiatives so the Army can be better positioned to combat terrorism.

Other installations affected

Fort Lewis isn't the only local military installation reshaped by the war, although it is the largest.

Camp Murray has seen an unprecedented need for citizen-soldiers to ease the strain on active-duty forces. Some Army units are finishing their third deployment, and there's little to suggest a fourth or fifth tour isn't possible.