Mayor Jones Meets with Federal Delegation and Pentagon Leaders
Published on July 10, 2025
Mayor Jones Meets with Federal Delegation and Pentagon Leaders to Advocate for Military City USA
SAN ANTONIO (July 10, 2025) – San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones traveled to Washington, D.C. this week for high-level meetings with senior military officials at the Pentagon and members of Congress on Capitol Hill. The purpose of the trip was to advocate for protecting and growing the missions at Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) in light of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s April 30, 2025 memo calling for Army Transformation and Acquisition Reform. Accompanying Mayor Jones were Assistant City Manager Jeff Coyle, (Ret.) Maj. Gen. Juan Ayala, Director of Military and Veterans Affairs and Sally Basurto, Director of Government Affairs.
The memo specifically called for the merger of Forces Command, U.S. Army North, and U.S. Army South into a single headquarters focused on homeland defense and partnership with Western Hemisphere partners. U.S. Army North and U.S. Army South are both based at JBSA, with Forces Command located at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.
“As the Army takes steps to ensure we can fight and win our Nation’s wars, Military City USA will be with them every step of the way, as we always have been. We need to be proactive, which is why I shared a short list of Army missions currently performed elsewhere that if realigned to San Antonio would further help them achieve their goals around cost-savings and operational efficiencies,” said Mayor Jones, former Under Secretary of the Air Force. “We need to speak with one voice, and we will continue to position San Antonio and our unique civil-defense ecosystem to attract additional missions and contribute to the defense industrial base.”
The Mayor and City team met with Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, Under Secretary of the Air Force Edwin Oshiba, Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and Congressman Henry Cuellar. The team also met with Major General James Isenhower and Colonel James Allen, who led the Operational Planning Team (OPT) tasked with developing options to implement the Secretary of Defense’s guidance regarding the proposed mergers impacting JBSA.
Army leadership shared that preliminary recommendations are to move approximately 200 active-duty soldiers from JBSA-Ft. Sam Houston to Ft. Bragg, leaving approximately 350 ARNORTH and ARSOUTH soldiers and 400 civilians at JBSA. For context, two hundred soldiers are less than one percent of the total active-duty personnel based in San Antonio. Additionally, less than 70 percent of the authorized positions at ARNORTH and ARSOUTH are currently filled, according to Army officials. The merger, designed to achieve operational efficiencies, combined with higher staffing levels at the command, could mean the actual impact to the active-duty footprint at JBSA is negligible.
“Army leaders stressed that no formal decisions have been made, but they are not anticipating any sizeable decrements to JBSA,” said (Ret.) Maj. Gen. Juan Ayala. “As the Mayor indicated, the modernization effort presents numerous opportunities to build on our strengths – military medicine, cyber security, manufacturing, and training and education – to grow the military presence in San Antonio.”
Pentagon leaders are expected to issue an executive order in the coming weeks, with the newly created Western Hemisphere Command at full operational capability by October 2026. The timing of any movement of personnel from JBSA is to be determined.