Fort Lewis sees growth, change

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.

The 81st Brigade Combat Team, the Washington Army National Guard's largest combat unit, is on alert for a second deployment. It served a year in Kuwait and Iraq from 2004 to 2005.

Rick Patterson, a retired colonel who works on special projects for the Washington Military Department, said if someone had told him several years ago the brigade would have twice deployed to a major overseas conflict, "I would have just said you're crazy.

"Times have changed."

The need to constantly move equipment and people to the war zone also has increased the tempo of operations at McChord Air Force Base. It has deployed more than 7,800 airmen since the Iraq War began.

But Fort Lewis has been the most changed by the war. Since 2001, more than 35,000 of its soldiers have deployed overseas. About 180 service members assigned to the Army post have died there.

Stryker brigade excels

At the start of the war, the Stryker brigade was unproven. Five years later and after numerous combat deployments, military leaders have praised its speed and lethality in urban environments, and soldiers swear by the armor protection.

"The war in Iraq plays to the (Stryker Brigade Combat Team's) strong suit just by the nature of the warfare there," said Lt. Col. Joseph Davidson, commander of an infantry squadron assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which completed its second deployment to Iraq last year.

Lt. Gen. James Dubik, an architect of the Stryker program and former commanding general at Fort Lewis, said the Iraq War accelerated the development of the first two Stryker brigades at Fort Lewis. "The Army then saw how useful they were in the battlefield and accelerated the other four brigades and decided to form a seventh," Dubik said in a videoconference last week. He now heads the command in charge of training Iraqi security forces.

Soldier care

The care of wounded soldiers and assessment of those returning from combat also has undergone significant changes.

Last year, articles were published about shoddy living conditions and bureaucratic hurdles for many injured soldiers receiving outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the Army's flagship hospital. The reports raised questions about whether the Army was equipped to care for soldiers who survive serious wounds in Afghanistan and Iraq and require physical and emotional rehabilitation for years afterward.

The Army took action in the wake of the scandal to improve care, including replacing medical-hold companies with Warrior Transition Units. Wounded soldiers are held in the WTU until they either can return to their unit or are medically discharged.

Madigan Army Medical Center stood up its Warrior Transition Battalion last summer. Nearly 700 soldiers are assigned to the unit.

Army leaders say the battalion is a much better system for treating soldiers' physical and emotional wounds while maintaining their well-being and morale because it is commanded by a senior officer and brings more personnel and case managers to the table. "These soldiers now are not going in alone," Maj. Michael Lawrence, the battalion's executive officer said.

U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., was among the politicians who have toured the renovated barracks the wounded soldiers have moved into and said he's impressed with improvements. "Giving a lot more help and assistance to these soldiers, some of which are very seriously injured, I think is outstanding," he said. "We've got to keep working to make the transition between the Army and (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) seamless. That still needs work. They're doing a lot better."

The Army has improved procedures to screen soldiers for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury from combat. Madigan and Fort Lewis have taken the screening a step further with the Soldier Wellness Assessment Pilot Program. They've added a fourth screening

three to six months before a deployment

an expanded wellness survey and ensure every soldier screened also sees a psychologist. The Army requires three screenings 30 days before and after a deployment and three to six months after a deployment.

Dr. Quigg Davis, the program's chief, said soldiers are on an "emotional high" when they return home and can either ignore problems or not recognize them until they adjust to life back home. "Sometimes some of the problems they're going to have aren't there yet," Davis said. "It's a good feeling to get off the plane."

The toll of war is shared equally by the families worrying constantly about their loved ones and taking on the daily struggle of being a single parent during the deployment. Fort Lewis has substantially increased the number of programs to help them through the stress, including free child care and family activities, Lori Parker, volunteer coordinator at Fort Lewis, said.

They will be deployed

Maj. Gen. Robert Allardice, a former McChord wing commander now in charge of developing Iraq's air force, said in the face of all this change, one constant has emerged over the past several years. "What I think we see now is a generation of airmen and soldiers who have come into the Air Force and the Army knowing that they're going to be engaged in this expeditionary world where they will deploy overseas and be part of something bigger than themselves," he said.

Christian Hill covers the city of Lacey and military for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5427 or at chill@theolympian.com.