Sulphur Southwest Daily News January 23, 2008
The Rotary Club learns more about Fort Polk
By David Ryan Palmer
Fort Polk was the topic of the Sulphur Rotary Club's speaker on Wednesday. Teresa Lawson from Fort Polk's public affairs office spoke about the operations and mission of the only operating military base in Louisiana.
"I'm very passionate about the army. I'm a combat veteran myself, and my husband's serving in Iraq right now."
The Rotary Club was allowed to see the fully extended version of the Army's "Strength" campaign, as well as insight into some of Fort Polk's operations.
"Major General Boldger has several different missions in Fort Polk: First, it's to train solders and to grow leaders to deploy, fight, and win."
"We have the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) that trains Brigade Combat Teams for war. We also have to provide a quality installation that provides a secure, thriving community for soldiers, army civilians, retirees, and their families," said Lawson.
According to an article on Fort Polk at www.globalsecurity.org, the facility is "...unique in all the Army because it is the only Combat Training Center (CTC) that also has the mission to train and deploy combat and combat support units."
Fort Polk started as a base for the Louisiana Maneuvers during World War II (of which McNeese University also participated), then was used as a basic training post during Vietnam, updated to the base of the 5th Mech Division during the 1980s, and now its current dual mission as JRTC and home to the 2nd ACR and Warrior Brigade.
"We're also a power projection platform," Lawson said. "We mobilize, validate, deploy and redeploy our active National Guard and Reserve forces. We can deploy soldiers out of Fort Polk a lot quicker than Fort Hood. You think of Fort Hood as a larger installation; we're better. We're much better."
Lawson also said that Fort Polk has worked with the office of the Mayor in Sulphur to set up a Military Affairs Committee.
"We want people to go out and say 'Hey, this is what the army does."
"You don't have to agree with the war; I personally don't like war, even though I'm a combat veteran, I don't like it, but I love the soldiers."
© Copyright 2008, GateHouse Media, Inc.
