Facing the prospect of U.S. Army job losses at Fort Sam Houston, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is lobbying for positions in other states to be relocated to San Antonio.
The Trump Administration is in the midst of restructuring the service branch, with plans to combine two San Antonio-based commands, both located at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, and the North Carolina-based Forces Command at Fort Bragg, into a single headquarters.
Army leadership’s preliminary recommendations are to move about 200 San Antonio-based soldiers to Fort Bragg — while roughly 750 positions would remain here, according to Jones’ office.
Jones said on Thursday that she presented U.S. Army leaders and Texas’ U.S. Senators with a list of missions that could be “ripe for relocation” in place of the lost jobs.
Navigating the potential job losses posed by the Army restructure is an early test for Jones, who previously served as the Under Secretary of the Air Force under the Biden Administration and held a number of high-level military positions that have given her tremendous insight on the potential restructure.
She’s also campaigned hard as a Democrat, and has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and the Republican administration pushing the current changes.
Earlier this month Jones traveled to Washington, D.C., to make her case to Pentagon leaders tasked with the reorganization, as well as Texas’ Republican leaders on Capitol Hill who could influence the process.
“I’m going to use my background, and what I know, and certainly my network to ensure that we are as proactive as we can be,” Jones said in an interview Thursday.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones is urging military leaders to move additional missions to San Antonio, as some jobs appear likely to leave the city in the Trump Administration’s U.S. Army realignment. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report
The idea of Army jobs leaving the state has alarmed Texas lawmakers, who have limited leverage to stop it as they await a formal announcement in the coming weeks. Jones said that Texas’ U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both Republicans, had been good partners on working to keep positions in San Antonio.
“They need a target list, and we can most help ourselves if we can be very specific,” Jones said.
In a letter shared with the San Antonio Report, Jones suggested that San Antonio could potentially absorb some positions currently located at the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama, which handles contracts and acquisitions for the branch.
“We’ve already got a subordinate command related to contracting,” Jones told the Report. “That major headquarters is in a place where I know that they’re busting at the seams at their current location.”
She also suggested moving medical missions, including some from the Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), which is headquartered at Fort Detrick in Maryland, to allow the Army to “tap into [San Antonio’s] world-class medical footprint.”
Another suggestion was to put some “supporting elements” of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, which is located in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., closer to the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) in Austin.
“Austin and San Antonio can well support the quality-of-service and quality-of-life
factors important for soldiers and civilians supporting these missions,” Jones wrote.
San Antonio and Bexar County leaders had already been angling to recruit jobs from the Defense Health Agency (DHA) in Falls Church, Va., including arranging potential facilities at Fort Sam Houston.
Such relocations are quite sensitive since jobs and local investments are on the line — as evidenced by DHA’s overall defensiveness about the idea back in 2023.