The public comment period allotted by the Department of the Army for communities to respond to potential cuts at military installations around the country ended Monday, with Fort Polk Progress Chairman Michael Reese saying he expected a good showing for Fort Polk.

The 30-day comment period allowed members of the public to respond to a report released by the Army in June that proposed troop reductions at 29 Army installations, including Fort Polk. The Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Assessment proposed slashing as many as 6,500 troops from the post as part of the Army’s overall force reduction strategy.

“I think it’s truly going to be a significant number,” Reese said. “It’s probably going to be more than five times greater than what we did before.”

Reese said that as of Aug. 12, letters of support for Fort Polk had garnered about 35 percent of all the response. He said that because Fort Polk is a significantly smaller installation than many on the list to be cut, that number had an even greater impact. Kentucky’s Fort Knox was the only installation with more response at that time, with 40 percent of the total response.

Fort Polk Progress organized letter-writing campaigns around the state, with local efforts in the last days of the comment period bringing in more than 3,400 in Vernon Parish alone. The group also drew support from the area’s congressional delegation.

The group saw 7,400 people sign the online petition at Change.org. According to Reese, the online petition had 48 states represented and American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Marshall Islands. Support was also international, with signers hailing from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Germany, India, Israel, South Korea, Malaysia and Mexico.

Final numbers are expected from the U.S. Department of the Army within the next 10 days.(American Press Archives)