Columbia, SC (WLTX) -- Fort Jackson says it is working to train soldiers in a quickly changing landscape, this with an uncertain future of the nation's army.
"Non-conventional, ISIL, Al-Qaeda off-shoots of those organizations to hybrid organizations that we've seen operating in quite frankly Eastern Europe, it's part conventional, part unconventional. So our soldiers today and our leaders have gotta be prepared to operate in a very complex environment and a rapidly changing environment," said Major General Bradley Becker, Commanding General at Fort Jackson.
The base trains about 70,000 people each year and while the Becker expects to hit those numbers again in 2015, he says they have to train differently now because of the challenges across the world.
Becker says he is optimistic about 2015, but cannot say the same beyond that.
"I'm a little concerned about 2016 because of the sequestration level cuts, but what does that mean for Fort Jackson? And the short answer is I don't know," said Becker. "You know we are the largest initial entry training site. It's difficult to replicate what we do somewhere else, though it's not impossible."
But what Becker does know, is that the community surrounding Fort Jackson sent a strong message to Washington with its "Save Our Fort" petition.
"I'll tell you that the chamber did a terrific job. They got the word out and 17,000 people signed the petition that went up to Washington," said Becker. "I got some numbers back from across the Army and what came out of this community was one of the highest feedback rates across the entire United States."
Becker says representatives from the Army will hold public listening sessions to hear from the community sometime in January or February.
