Fort Riley ? He has two brigades with critical missions in Iraq, including 3,400 soldiers leaving in the coming days. Inquiries from reporters and VIPs from around the world come weekly, if not daily.

Maj. Gen. Carter Ham also is overseeing the return of the 1st Infantry Division to Kansas. And if that’s not enough, he just learned that Congress may not commit to earmarking money the post needs to finish $1 billion worth of construction to deal with the influx of soldiers.

“Certainly, it’s less than ideal, but that’s what our senior leaders are engaged in. We monitor that very closely,” Ham said Thursday.

The House voted earlier this week to strip more than $350 million in Fort Riley construction spending out of appropriations bills. The money was earmarked last year by Congress but removed at the behest of the new Democratic majority.

Among the projects are barracks, headquarters and hangar complexes for a combat aviation brigade that will be deploying to Iraq this year. They also include completion of airfield improvements and construction of the division headquarters.

“Do the decisions go the way I personally think they should go? Certainly not,” Ham said. “But that’s our system, and for soldiers it’s OK because you always come back to that oath we take to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

As division commander, Ham oversees the training of soldiers to go to war and the Army’s No. 1 mission of training advisers to work with the Iraqi army. Both tasks come as the division grows in number at Fort Riley, expected to be more than 18,000 by 2011.

Ham commanded soldiers in Iraq in 2004 before moving to the Pentagon. He became the 1st Division’s commander – and Fort Riley’s – in August.

“It’s been an interesting ride since the first of August, but it is fairly common for what is going on inside our Army right now,” he said during an interview.

Accelerated conversion

Changes include moving away from the Army’s tradition of division-centered operations to brigade forces, which can rapidly deploy with all the soldiers and support structures necessary for combat. The first of those brigades, the 4th of 1st Infantry, leaves for Iraq in the next few weeks as part of President Bush’s plan to increase the number of troops by 21,500.

Other units will be leaving this year, including the Combat Aviation Brigade and medical and supply units. Later this spring, a brigade of 1st Armored Division now conducting adviser training will begin converting to a combat brigade of 3,800 soldiers.

The conversion was accelerated by a year, and Ham said it could be complicated if facilities aren’t ready. The fort might have to find temporary offices and homes for soldiers on post or in surrounding communities – and it might have to lower soldiers’ expectations about what awaits them.

“Soldiers will be OK with that as long as we tell them,” he said.

Since August, Fort Riley has seen a steady stream of military and civilian dignitaries, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Army Secretary Francis Harvey and numerous Army generals. Last week, Gen. Babaker Shawkat Zebari, Iraqi army chief of staff, visited the transition team training. Zebari also had a three-hour meeting in nearby Manhattan with Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

“Just the fact that he came to see them was powerful and very important. It reinforced, with us, that we have the right focus, in particular in the understanding of the culture that we are dealing with,” Ham said.

Zebari also has agreed in principle to having some Iraqi officers and soldiers come to Fort Riley to train with transition teams, just as Afghan soldiers did in January.

Delegation split

While such national and international exposure makes it easier to keep Fort Riley in the minds of Washington budget writers, there’s still concern about the House’s action.

Kansas’ delegation split along party lines in the vote, with Republicans Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran voting against the bill, while Democrats Nancy Boyda and Dennis Moore voted for it.

Moran, a Republican who represents the 1st District of western Kansas, said the money was tied to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission’s decision in 2005 to relocate thousands of soldiers to Kansas, including the 1st Infantry Division.

Maj. Gen. Carter Ham, left, talks with an Iraqi officer during transition training at Fort Riley. Ham has two brigades involved in critical missions in Iraq, including 3,400 soldiers leaving in the coming days.

“To me, the best economic news, the biggest development in our state in decades, was the BRAC decision,” he said. “We cannot set aside the tremendous benefit that Kansas is going to accrue as a result of the BRAC decision with the uncertainty of knowing whether Fort Riley is now going to get the money it needs to build the infrastructure.”

Boyda, whose 2nd District includes Forts Leavenworth and Riley, said after the vote she was optimistic the projects would be completed. She voted for the bill despite its lack of earmarked funds, arguing that Congress should abandon its practice of lining spending bills with special projects.

Ham won’t criticize Congress as he works on reshaping Fort Riley.

“That’s how this works, is this business of debate and disagreement,” Ham said. “What’s your better alternative than having representatives elected by the people debating various courses of action?”