Hoo-AH: Fort Sill growing amid BRAC growth

Construction is under way on the new Air Defense Artillery School that's being relocated to Fort Sill, and the Army post is seeing an influx of soldiers and equipment as part of deployment operations.

The ADA School is being moved to Fort Sill from Fort Bliss, Texas, as part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process, commonly called BRAC.

About 150 soldiers and their families are scheduled to arrive in June with the 31st ADA Headquarters, but the bulk of arrivals at Fort Sill are connected to the post's mission as a deployment platform.

Lead elements of the 34th Combat Aviation Brigade, which include National Guardsmen from 11 states, began arriving in January with about 50 aircraft.

"It will reach its peak in terms of numbers of people and aircraft in June and July at close to 3,000 people on the ground and almost 100 aircraft," Fort Sill Garrison Commander Col. Robert S. Bridgford said.

Another multistate combat aviation brigade, the 28th, will arrive in early 2009 with approximately 3,600 Guardsmen, and a third brigade, the 40th, will follow that.

"We've had huge preparations for mobilization. We've increased the number of pads out at the airfield to allow us to have up to 100 aircraft, and we're going to increase that later on to about 130 ... and we've done a lot of renovation and minor construction in support of the mobilization," Bridgford said.

Bridgford said barracks, administration facilities and the airfield have been reworked to give the mobilizing units better operations centers from which to train. Mobile barracks also have been erected to support the 3,000 additional soldiers who will go through combat basic and advanced individual training this summer.

Bridgford said the first two funding increments for the ADA School have enabled construction to begin for key components in relocating the ADA School, and officials expect to break ground in late summer or early fall on the 31st ADA Brigade complex and the Armed Forces Reserve Center.

Of the 11 buildings in the ADA School complex currently being built, the tactical equipment maintenance facility is about 65 percent complete. It will house the Patriot missile system equipment and the training for it.

Other projects nearing completion are the ADA School's dining facility and its Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence building.

Meanwhile, Lawton Public Schools already have issued $68 million in bonds to expand its facilities, and voters will decide May 13 on an additional $38.5 million bond proposal.