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LEESVILLE -- Fort Polk Progress and several regional chambers of commerce hosted U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and Brig. Gen. Timothy P. McGuire during a luncheon Monday, during which the grassroots organization and its partners discussed how the region will be moving forward after the local installation emerged largely unscathed from the latest round of sequestration cuts.
Officials said the region needs to continue its vigilant opposition toward arbitrary budget cuts to defense and also seek to form a national coalition with other base communities that are facing threats to their way of life.
Keynote speaker Sen. Bill Cassidy said the region is sophisticated in its approach to advocating for itself and understanding how Fort Polk and the local area are important on a national scale. He said that Fort Polk was able to fare well as the Army downsizes because the local community has made it clear that the installation is incredibly valuable in the scope of national defense.
"There is no community more sophisticated, that knows the connection between international, national, state and local affairs than this community here. Now with that kind of backdrop, let me return to praising you. Sequestration, clearly 388 troops were lost from Fort Polk -- we're safe. But on the other hand, others got closed or near closed. Others lost thousands. Because of your efforts, and the efforts of folks in Washington D.C., we -- principally (the efforts of you all) -- but we were able to preserve the troop strength here," Cassidy said.
Cassidy echoed regional leaders call to join forces with other base communities to effectively lobby against sequestration measures.
McGuire, Fort Polk's Commanding General, discussed how the installation's military value was not lost on senior Army leadership as they decided how to whittle down its force structure. He said the resounding community support was a big part of Fort Polk's success thus far and the region must continue to work hard in order to ensure the installation has a bright future.
"We did well in this last round. We need to maintain momentum. We need to continue to find those win-win opportunities and there are a laundry list of them," McGuire said.
Fort Polk Progress Chairman Michael Reese applauded Cassidy and other elected officials for their efforts to preserve the installation's troop strength and said Louisiana has lead the way nationally in its efforts to seeking solutions to the Budget Control Act. That effort, he said, will be better served by enlisting the help of other base communities.
"So what we're up against now is the need to not only be fighting for the protection of our own installation, which is what we've been fast at work at for the past four or five years," Reese said. "But what we've got to do now is team up with other defense communities across our country because now we've got to fight for the Army itself. We do not need another round of cuts for the U.S. military and particularly the Army."
Reese said Fort Polk Progress will be hosting Fort Campbell's defense community group in October, as part of the effort to create the national coalition. He said the group is also working to see how Fort Polk can best prepare itself for the Army of the future, and is working with military experts to be prepared to accommodate future Army missions.
The luncheon was hosted by Fort Polk Progress, the Vernon Parish Chamber of Commerce, the Natchitoches Chamber of Commerce, the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce, the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance and the Greater Beauregard Chamber of Commerce.
Click here to see a photo album of the event.
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