America’s Largest Branch Is About To Get A Lot Smaller

Pending cuts to manpower will reduce the Army’s size to its smallest point since before World War II. The service announced Thursday that it plans to eliminate roughly 40,000 soldiers by 2018 by cutting troops from every installation and reducing two full-sized brigade combat teams to much smaller battalion task forces.

The most significant cuts will occur at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richard, Alaska. The two brigade combat teams there — 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, and the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division — will see their numbers reduced from 4,000 to about 1,050.

Additionally, Fort Benning will see its number of soldiers drop from 12,655 to 9,040 and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson will see its numbers drop from 4,603 to 1,895. A further 17,000 civilian jobs will also be cut across the Army by fall of 2018.