What is BRAC thing that everyone is talking about? I think that we've been talking about it forever now and we have finally found out when we'll see the new Soldiers arriving. BRAC stands for Defense Base and Realignment Commission. We have some info for and I hope you find it useful. What will the BRAC do for the housing market?? Well, supply and demand is one of the key factors that drive the prices up or down in our market. Right now we are in a "buyers market". That will start to change considering the amount of new Soldiers that are about to transfer in from around the world. I'm excited that we will see a better market for everyone. Read on.......

FORT SILL -- The big influx of people from Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) won’t be until the summer of 2009, but Fort Sill is already hopping.
  Walls are springing up on the new Air Defense Artillery (ADA) School that’s coming here from Fort Bliss, Texas, under BRAC. And it’s true that the 31st ADA Headquarters will arrive in June with 150 soldiers and their families. But the surge that Fort Sill experiences this summer will be for reasons quite apart from BRAC.
   Fort Sill’s mission as a power projection platform is starting to draw in some hefty units. Lead elements of the 34th Combat Aviation Brigade have been here since January. Made up of National Guardsmen from 11 states, the brigade currently has 50 aircraft parked on Henry Post Army Airfield.
   “It will reach its peak in terms of numbers of people and aircraft in June and July at close to 3,000 people on the ground and almost 100 aircraft,” Fort Sill Garrison Commander Col. Robert S. Bridgford said.
   “Of that, over 400 are trainers who came in from other installations and are here for three, four, five months, and then they’re going to come back after about a month break,” said Bridgford.
   Another multistate combat aviation brigade, the 28th, will arrive here in February-March 2009 with approximately 3,600 Guardsmen. And there’s still another one, the 40th, planned after that.
   “We’ve had huge preparations for mobilization. We’ve increased the number of pads out at the airfield to allow us to have up to 100 aircraft, and we’re going to increase that later on to about 130 … and we’ve done a lot of renovation and minor construction in support of the mobilization,” Bridgford said.
   Temporary dining facilities in the form of two white tents are now in front of the brigades’ barracks, Buildings 1603 and 1604 west of Prichard Field. There are also a couple of tents at the airfield to be used for an operations center and administration.
   Bridgford said barracks, administration facilities and the airfield have been reworked to give the mobilizing units better operations center from which to train.
   While all this is going on, the training side of Fort Sill has a new mandate to “Grow the Army.” As a result, the post has had to add temporary facilities to both the 95th Adjutant General (Reception) Battalion area and the 434th Field Artillery Brigade. Relocatable barracks have gone in to support the 3,000 additional soldiers who will be going through combat basic and advanced individual training this summer.
   Meanwhile, planning continues for both BRAC and the Residential Community Initiative (RCI) partnership with Picerne Military Housing to take effect Nov. 1. 
 
Adam and Lisa