The Trump Administration says a new U.S. Army Western Hemisphere Command that’s expected to consolidate missions from Fort Sam Houston and Fort Bragg will be located in North Carolina.
It’s unclear how many jobs San Antonio will lose in the move — early indications were about 200.
The Army is in the midst of a service branch restructure aimed at reducing inefficiencies, and San Antonio’s congressional delegation put everything it had into promoting the city for the new consolidated command.
Nevertheless, Breaking Defense reported this week that the Army’s Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said it will be stood up in North Carolina before the end of the year — surprising members of Congress who still haven’t been given the full details of the move.
“On the surface, it may not seem as if [the administration] listened,” said U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio), who tried to stop the move by putting San Antonio-specific language in a defense reauthorization bill that the Senate still hasn’t taken up.
“But there are bigger conversations that are being had as far as the overall direction of the Department of War,” he continued. “If we’re consolidating in one area, but we’re growing in another, I think that ultimately doesn’t hurt our city.”
Local leaders have long had their sights set on courting military medicine installations, which they believe would align closely with the region’s growing bioscience industry.
As talk of losing the Army North and Army South commands heated up, the City of San Antonio and Bexar County have been hurrying along plans to renovate an old Fort Sam hospital building that’s expected to house about 600 Defense Health Agency (DHA) employees when it’s complete.
“While I am disappointed to hear the consolidated headquarters will relocate to North Carolina, … San Antonio is unmatched in our ability to host military missions and families, and we look forward to working with the [administration] to identify additional missions [the city] may be able to host,” Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said Thursday.
A DHA move?
It’s no secret San Antonio is hoping the Defense Health Agency, which is currently headquartered in Falls Church, Va., could be that next get.
It has about 130,000 employees spread out across the country, and Gonzales said Texas lawmakers are now well-positioned to push for the agency to call San Antonio home.
“I’m working with Sen. [John] Cornyn on growing out the Defense Health Agency, [which already has some jobs] located here, and I think [San Antonio] would be a great location for the headquarters.”
Last week Jones also pointed to the city’s many offerings on the health-science front as a path forward, including UTSA’s merger with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
The city and county each set aside $10 million from their tight budgets to help renovate the Fort Sam Houston building for DHA, and last week applied for state money to help.
“This one grant that we’re applying for is important in the larger conversation about how we think about the strengthening the defense ecosystem, building the pipeline of talent recruiting companies here, and also strengthening the very the ties that are so unique to [our region],” Jones said.