Despite loss of its combat troops, Fort Knox's iconic status and role in pop culture endure

FORT KNOX, Ky. ? Few military posts have a place in pop culture as rock solid as Kentucky's Fort Knox, thanks to its mysterious gold vault.

The name of the historic base is practically synonymous with impenetrability. In addition to housing the Treasury Department's U.S. Bullion Depository and its stacks of gold, the Army's tank training school was started at Fort Knox. And the sprawling central Kentucky Army post has been the setting for blockbuster Hollywood films.

But Knox's days as a war-fighting post may be over with the Pentagon's decision last week to strip its only combat brigade, which follows the loss of its famed armor school and thousands of tank personnel just a few years ago. The base will remain the site of the gold vault, but otherwise it could be destined to function less as a tip-of-the-spear military facility and more as a home to office and support workers.

Many of those workers file into a nearly million-square-foot structure on post that was completed a few years ago, but the massive building doesn't seem destined to unseat the vault as the symbol of Fort Knox.

"It is kind of an icon. Most people when they see the outline of the depository, they know what it is," said Harry Berry, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who is now judge-executive in Hardin County. "When you think about Fort Knox, if you don't have a military background, you instantly think about gold or 'Goldfinger,'" the 1960s James Bond film.

The Pentagon announced last week that it was eliminating Knox's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division as part of a major restructuring that will reduce the Army's active duty combat brigades to 33 from 45. The cuts will reduce the size of the Army from about 570,000 in the midst of the Iraq war down to 490,000, which includes personnel in units that support the brigades.

For some posts, that means the loss of a few hundred soldiers, but in Knox's case it's a cut of more than 40 percent to its active duty force and nearly a total elimination of its fighting personnel. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear puts the figure at about 10,000 lost troops and their families leaving Knox and the surrounding area.

Gen. Ray Odierno, Army chief of staff, said the military was not moving toward closing Knox: He pointed out that the Army's recruiting and human resource commands have relocated there since a major Army realignment almost a decade ago.

Baldy Carder, who owns a tattoo parlor in nearby Radcliff, said he's not worried about the post closing ? "because of the gold reserve." But he said his business could take a hit since about half his customers come from the post.

"When you're talking about 10,000 people leaving, that's quite a chunk of change that we're going to be losing," he said.

Fort Knox's own estimates project that its annual economic impact will shrink from about $2.8 billion a year to $2.62 billion upon the brigade's departure, said Ryan Brus with the post's public affairs office. That's a decrease of more than 6 percent.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/213746731.html

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