ClarksvilleNow.com Reporting
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FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – A “listening session” on an Army proposal to make deep cuts in personnel stationed at Fort Campbell attracted a capacity crowd more than an hour before the start of the event.
As Army brass assembled at the front of Fort Campbell’s Family Resource Center, two nearby overflow venues were also filled to capacity to hear elected and business officials from Tennessee and Kentucky make their case to the army to spare Fort Campbell any deep cuts. “I thought it was very, very well done, and that sends a message that we’re going to carry back to the decision makers in Washington DC,” said Brig. Gen. Roger Cloutier, one of four army officials that came to hear the Fort Campbell story.
No event in recent memory attracted as many high profile dignitaries, starting with 101s Commanding General Gary Volesky, who addressed the auditorium from Liberia, where he is leading Fort Campbell troops on Ebola training.
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and Kentucky LT Governor Crit Luallen led a long list of elected, business and community leaders that spoke late into the evening on the importance of Fort Campbell.
Perhaps the loudest message sent was the overflow crowds, the traffic jams leading into Gate 1 and the thousands that were turned away because there was no space to accommodate them.
Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett, Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan, Hopkinsville Mayor Carter Hendricks stressed the strategic importance of Fort Campbell in addition to the impact cuts would have on the economy.
Other civic and business leaders hammered those points home with facts, figures and visuals to make the same point that Fort Campbell should be spared personnel cuts.
The head of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce spoke of the explosive growth of Clarksville and Katie Gambill, President of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce addressed issues of lifestyle and recreation that enhance the lives of soldiers and their families.
According to an Army report, the post could lose up to 16,000 soldiers and civilians, who in turn have more than 24,000 spouses and children living in the community.
Brig. Gen. Roger Cloutier said no decision has been made yet and that it will be early spring before final numbers are determined.
Read earlier stories on Listening Session here.
Photos by Lee Erwin | ClarksvilleNow.com