(Tribune News Service) — The U.S. Army’s Schofield Barracks-based 25th Infantry Division is seeing drastic changes as “America’s Pacific Division” reshapes itself for potential conflict in the region.

On Monday, Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans handed command of the division over to Maj. Gen. James Bartholomees — who previously served as U.S. Army Pacific’s chief of staff at Fort Shafter.

As rain fell during the ceremony at the Schofield Barracks, Army First Corps commander Lt. Gen. Matthew McFarlane said that under Evans’ leadership, the division’s soldiers “led our Army’s continuous transformation efforts while supporting our U.S. Army Pacific campaign plan as you’ve organized differently, generated readiness continuously integrating new technology and innovative thought.”

The division has been testing and fielding new weapons, vehicles, drones and communications systems as it reorganizes.

The Army envisions a force that uses smaller, lightly armored vehicles and more powerful weapons to move faster and hit harder — while also using high-tech drones and communications systems to hide while scoping out their potential opponents.

Recently soldiers from the division returned from the Philippines, where they spent months training closely with the Philippine military amid tensions with China. While they were in the Philippines, they put their new tools and tactics they had tried out in Hawaii to the test in the unforgiving terrain and harsh climate of the large archipelago, putting both their tech and soldiers to the limits.

“The smaller and faster we are, the better we can conceal ourselves and the better we can move to gain positions of advantage,” explained Evans.

“Speed is security. The ability to hide in plain sight is security. The ability to leverage the terrain in Northern Luzon with smaller, more agile vehicles — that is security. The smaller you are, the less electromagnetic signature you’re putting out, the less observable you are from the air domain or in the electromagnetic spectrum.”

Bartholomees told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that it’s an honor to return to the 25th — he was previously a battalion commander with the unit as it was setting up its jungle warfare school at Schofield 11 years ago.

“My battalion was very first one through the jungle operations training course, ” he said.

To this day it’s the only jungle warfare school the Army has in the United States and has recently been used by elite military units stationed on the mainland to train for operations in the tropics.

In the years after the 9 /11 terror attacks, the soldiers of the 25th ID deployed extensively to Iraq and Afghanistan, including 15 months of heavy combat in Iraq in support of the 2007 “troop surge.” But as the Pentagon increasingly sees the Pacific as its top priority theater of operations amid tensions with China, the 25th has become the U.S. Army’s vanguard in the region as it seeks to bolster alliances.

“I’m actually going forward to the Philippines next week for a Land Forces Command conference to discuss just that,” said Bartholomees. “(Maj.) Gen. Evans has set this up in perfect fashion so that I could step right in, shoulder-to-shoulder with our Philippine allies, to work closely with them as we look to move forward in the future.”

Top U.S. military planners in Hawaii see the Philippines as an increasingly critical ally, as well as a key strategic area to support their operations in the Western Pacific as they posture to confront China. The Philippines is among the most likely staging areas the U.S. military would seek to use if it were to respond to a Chinese blockade or invasion of Taiwan.

The 25th also has deployed troops frequently to other countries in the region, while also hosting foreign troops in Hawaii for joint training exercises and exchanges. Currently members of the division are in Malaysia training with Malaysian and Australian troops for exercise Keris Strike 25.

The 25’s senior enlisted leader, command Sgt. Maj. Shaun Curry, said that there is “excitement inside of our formation to be a part of something new for our army ... they want to stay in the Pacific, they want to stay in Hawaii. But more importantly, they want to be a part of the cutting edge of war fighting for our nation.”

In military circles the role of the Army in U.S. Pacific policy has been hotly debated. The region, dominated by vast blue ocean, has tended to be viewed as the domain of the Navy and Air Force. As the services have competed for funding and resources, some Navy and Air Force leaders have at times sought to downplay the Army’s role.

But Army officials lately have been much more assertive in arguing for their importance to U.S. strategy. Evans said that “at some point, everything’s got to touch the land, whether you’re going to resupply maritime assets, air assets, whether you’re going to launch a space asset. So that criticality of the joint fight is incredibly important.”

Pentagon leaders have been working to shift the military’s focus away from the sort of “small wars ” that have defined the Army’s recent history to focus on prospect of major combat operations against a “peer adversary” like China or Russia. In the decades since the 9 /11 terror attacks the Army has sent troops to hunt relatively lightly equipped militants across deserts and mountains in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and others.

U.S. military leaders have said they want to equip and train their troops for the future, rather than prepare for the “last war.”

But 25th ID’s area of operations, which spans the Pacific Islands to East and South Asia, has a long history of revolutions and instability that more closely resemble those wars. Notably, fighting in Myanmar between the ruling military junta and rebel groups has displaced millions, sending refugees across the globe seeking safety.

Bartholomees argued that ultimately, training for bigger fights will make his troops more prepared for anything they might encounter in a real world crisis.

He told the Star-Advertiser, “I think what we’ve learned over time as we prepared for those counterinsurgency operations or those peacekeeping operations, is the best way to prepare for those is to prepare for high intensity land combat, and that ultimately, by preparing ourselves for that environment, that we’re best prepared.”

Recently a deadly border clash broke out between Cambodia and Thailand. Fighting lasted for five days until the two countries agreed to a ceasefire that began midnight on Monday, but not before fighting killed 38 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.

“When we talk about large-scale combat operations, there’s this belief that somehow people go away — that’s just utterly false, ” Bartholomees said. “We have to operate in and amongst the people that we work with, we live with, because ultimately, we’re coming to support and defend them.”

He added, when it comes to large scale operations “there’s always discussions about will our allies invite us, would we have access basing and (for flying through their territory )? I can tell you, we won’t have access basing and overflight if we don’t work closely with their militaries, with their governments, with their people to help solve their problems.”

He noted that in the Philippines, military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner has requested the U.S. military work and train with Philippine forces on disaster preparedness and humanitarian relief. Brawner, an alumnus of the Daniel K Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Waikiki, has been a frequent visitor to Hawaii in his military career and forged close relations with American officials.

In Hawaii, Bartholomees said that working with local leaders is also a top priority. He assumes command of the division at a time when the military is facing scrutiny of its presence in the islands.

The Army is seeking to renew leases on state owned lands it obtained for a mere $1 in 1964. The state Board of Land and Natural Resources recently rejected the Army’s environmental impact statements on plans to retain lands.

“Within our military installations, it’s easy to become complacent and think of only the services that are provided to soldiers and families that are here, ” said Bartholomees.

“But the reality is what I’ve learned in my years of serving here is that our connection with the community, the local community out here, has as much to do with our success as everything that goes on the installation.”

He added that “it is truly my kuleana as the senior commander of U.S. Army Hawaii to connect with the local communities, and I will rely upon those folks that I’ve met over the years that have been here to help me make those connections.”

© 2025 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Visit www.staradvertiser.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.