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US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth wrapped up a four-day visit to Hawaii this week, which included a jam-packed itinerary of tours of base facilities and the Pohakuloa Training Area on the island of Hawaii, meetings with Native Hawaiian community leaders, a meeting with the Governor. Josh Green, and a town hall meeting with service members and military families at Schofield Barracks.
“What brought me here this week was really looking at our infrastructure, I’m very focused as Secretary of the Army on quality of life issues,” Wormuth told reporters before the town hall meeting began Tuesday. “I also wanted to go out and talk to state and local leaders, given the fact that we have a lease issue in a few years. … I think we need to show that we’re going to be a good partner in terms of how we approach that.”
Across all branches of the military in Hawaii, aging infrastructure and facilities have long been a challenging problem. The matter came to the fore in November 2021 when fuel from the WWII-era Red Hill military bulk fuel storage facility contaminated the Navy’s water system, which serves 93,000 people. . After initially resisting a state emergency order, the Navy is now working to empty the old fuel tanks, which sit just 100 feet above a key aquifer that most of Oahu depends on for clean water.
A group of activists in the back rows at the town hall meeting, behind the soldiers and their families, held signs calling for the closure of Red Hill. Among the activists was Ann Wright, a former diplomat and Army officer. Wright told Wormuth: “We want to urge the Army to really push the Navy. We want to urge the Army to fully staff Tripler (Army Medical Center) with toxicologists who can help these families who are still suffering.”
Wormuth said the Army has contributed several troops, including two deputy commanders, to Joint Task Force Red Hill, the organization led by Navy Vice Admiral John Wade and tasked with draining the large underground facility. .
The Army has “provided two general officers,” Wormuth said, “because we think it’s incredibly important to make sure that Red Hill is unloaded as quickly and safely as possible. And we want to make sure that Admiral Wade has the experience that he needs to be able to do that.”
Affected by the Red Hill water crisis were the Aliamanu Army Military Reservation and the Red Hill Housing Area. During the water crisis, Army leaders in Hawaii responded quickly, mobilizing a task force to assist residents in their living areas and temporarily moving residents to hotels in Waikiki. “The bill for that was about $90 million,” Wormuth told reporters. “But it was absolutely the right thing to do and what we needed to do.”
The Red Hill water crisis has changed the conversation about Hawaii’s relationship with the military. At the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce Council on Military Affairs Partnership Conference earlier this month, Wade told attendees: “What we do with Red Hill will also have implications for land leases and everything else that is involved here.”
Several of the army’s leases with the state for land it uses as training grounds expire in 2029. For military leaders, the army’s lease for the land in Pohakuloa is a particular priority. The large training area offers varied terrain and is one of the few ranges large enough for brigade-level training and long-range gunnery practice involving live-fire exercises. But several state agencies recently criticized an environmental assessment by the Army. And some island residents are calling on the military to reduce its footprint, or leave altogether.
“I respect those views,” Wormuth told reporters. “Part of the reason I met with some of the Native Hawaiian community leaders is to hear those views myself.” However, he added: “There is no other place in the Indo-Pacific where the US Army, and I would say even the entire joint force, can get the kind of training experiences that Pohakuloa training camp offers.” .
China has been locked in a series of territorial and navigation disputes in the South China Sea, a critical waterway through which more than a third of all international trade travels. Geopolitical tensions rose sharply last year with the expansion of Russia’s war in Ukraine along with increased Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan.
“This is the most challenging security environment I have seen in 30 years,” Wormuth said. “There are real security issues that we need to worry about. And in the Indo-Pacific… Pohakuloa is really the place where we can do that training. … This is part of having a strong military that is ready to protect the nation, and that is all of us. All US citizens, including Native Hawaiians.”
While the Pentagon’s focus is now on the Pacific region, over the past two decades the Army has focused much of its attention and resources on conflicts in the Middle East and Africa. The Pacific, and Hawaii, largely faded into the background. At the recent Military Affairs Council Partnership Conference, US Army Pacific Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. James Jarrard gave a candid assessment of the outcome.
“One of the problems we have in the Army is that we live in Hawaii. … I say that because when we ask the Department of the Army for things, they look at us like: ‘Hey, you’re living in paradise, you don’t need anything.’” Jarrard added: “We have received no resources. we need, so some of that infrastructure is in disrepair.”
Power outages, broken water mains and mold in the barracks were topics of discussion during the Wormuth town council meeting. Much of the infrastructure projects discussed are “deferred maintenance”: projects that the Army has determined are necessary to meet its mission objectives but have not been executed.
During his trip to Hawaii, Wormuth toured what the military calls a Q4-rated barracks, one that doesn’t meet the Army’s minimum standards and for which the cost to upgrade is more than 40% of the cost to replace.
“I think it’s fair to say that I was not happy with what I saw, quite frankly,” Wormuth said. “Hawaii has its own unique climate that, in terms of infrastructure maintenance, is very demanding. I think the Army has had to make tough decisions for years in terms of where it will spend its money, but we will need to invest in our infrastructure here in Hawaii.”
