7TH SPECIAL FORCES GROUP TO ADD 400 MORE SOLDIERS TO THE CANTONMENT BASE SOUTH OF CRESTVIEW

Well it is official now. Army 7th Special Forces Command is growing. Why wouldn’t it? The newest Army Base in decades with the most advance technology offered, more land to grow on, and more importantly, the quality of life for service men and women is one of the highest in the country here. I can assure you in today’s military, quality of life issues are a must to help reduce costs for retention and recruiting and provide this country the best of the best in protecting it. As mentioned before, and I will continue to mention, Eglin AFB and the surrounding Bases are on the mind of many folks in the Defense industry to move missions to our area in order to find economies of scale.




Special Forces Group to add 400 soldiers

JUSTIN HEINZE / Daily News

2012-06-07 15:47:31



EGLIN AFB — The Army 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) will stand up a fourth combat battalion this fall, which will bring the total number of soldiers at the cantonment to 2,200. Lt. Col. Martin Schmidt will lead the new battalion, which will have 400 soldiers. About 100 of them al-ready have arrived, according to public affairs officer Lt. Col. James “Jimmy” Brownlee. “The people who are already here, we are getting equipment in all the time, they’re out training and gearing up for the new battalion,” Brownlee said. With the addition, there will be four combat battalions and one general support battalion at the cantonment on Eglin Air Force Base’s reservation south of Crestview. News of the arrival was announced at Tuesday’s Okaloosa County Commission meeting. Commissioner Dave Parisot was visiting a new memorial at the cantonment when he heard that the new battalion was arriving, and made the announcement at the meeting. “This population increase should be good news to many of our Realtors and local businesses,” he said. Although Parisot announced additional construction at the cantonment, Brownlee said facilities are ready and waiting. “They were a planned battalion,” Brownlee said. Some of the new soldiers will come from Fort Bragg, N.C., while others will arrive from across the country, he said. The exact number of dependents who will come is not known, but Brownlee said most of the soldiers have families.