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Chattanoga: Military being refitted for future

By: Lauren Gregory
(Contact)

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Sheldon Baker

A historic Army Reserve unit in Chattanooga since 1949 will be disestablished this month as part of a large-scale reorganization of the nation’s armed forces.

“Up until this decade, the Army Reserve functioned as a strategic reserve,” said Maj. Jack Mullinax, a longtime member of the dissolving 3397th Garrison Support Unit. “Now, it’s becoming an operational reserve because it takes the reserve component to fight. The active-duty Army’s not big enough to perform the missions (in Iraq and Afghanistan) without reserve support.”

The Army is doing away with all of its garrison support units, which step up to keep active-duty bases running while those bases’ units are deployed. Support units supply everything from lawyers to military police and finance administrators, Maj. Mullinax said.

The plan now, he said, is to give those administrative duties to contracted civilian employees in order to utilize sworn personnel for combat.

“The prior system was built for a (shorter-term) conflict like Desert Shield/Desert Storm,” said Maj. Mullinax, who has taken an assignment at Fort Bragg, N.C. “But in a persistent conflict where we’re doing this mission for outside seven years now, we can’t afford to have so many soldiers tied up doing this kind of (administrative) work.”

Members of the 3397th, one of four garrison supports in the Southeast, have known for about a year that it would be inactivated, said James Stinchcomb, the unit’s supervisory staff administrator. The unit’s 283 members slowly have been reassigned to other units since then, leaving only about 20 left by the time its disestablishment ceremony was held Sunday afternoon.

Those members ultimately will find new assignments based on their interests and geographic constraints, Mr. Stinchcomb said.

“None of those soldiers are out of a job,” he said.

On Sept. 15, official orders will cease operations for the 3397th and the 3220th Garrison Support Unit of West Palm Beach, Fla., Mr. Stinchcomb said. On Sept. 15, 2009, the remaining garrison support units in the region — the 2145th out of Nashville and the 2125th out of Decatur, Ga. — will cease their operations, he said.

The reserve’s facility on 23rd Street will continue to house the 327th Chemical Company of Chattanooga until a new facility is built for it at an Army-owned site near the Enterprise South industrial park, Mr. Stinchcomb said. That move likely will be a few years to come, he said, since construction has not yet begun at the site.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department had expressed interest in taking over the 23rd Street facility after the 327th leaves. But Chief Deputy Allen Branum said Friday that the department hasn’t talked about the idea with city and county officials, who jointly own the building.

“I’m not saying it won’t happen, but we really haven’t taken any other initiative,” Chief Branum said. “(The Army’s) contract’s not even up yet.”

First Sgt. Sheldon Baker, who will transfer from the 3397th to the 327th Chemical Company, said he is sad to see his old unit go but has accepted the change as inevitable. Instead of garrison support, his new unit will be performing decontamination and reconnaissance work.

“It’s just streamlining,” 1st Sgt. Baker said. “It’s more or less doing business better. Soldiers need to do soldier things.”

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