WASHINGTON – Nearly 1,900 more active-duty soldiers will be stationed at Fort Lewis during the next five years as the Army increases its forces, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

Now, 28,000 soldiers and 5,000 civilians are stationed at the post outside Tacoma. The additional troops will bring the levels at Fort Lewis to about 35,000 by 2013.

“This is going to be big,” said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, a senior member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee. “We always like to go in the plus direction.”

Some of the new forces headed to Fort Lewis were expected.

To add to the three Stryker brigades there, the post will receive an Expeditionary Sustainment Command headquarters, which will be led by a brigadier general and be responsible for keeping supplies moving during major deployments.

There also will be new medical, military police and construction management forces assigned to the post.

“We knew this was coming, but we didn’t know the extent,” said Joe Piek, a Fort Lewis spokesman.

Other Army posts will see even greater growth. Fort Bliss in Texas will triple in size to nearly 40,000 soldiers by 2013, and Fort Benning in Georgia, Fort Drum in New York and Fort Bragg in North Carolina also will see significant gains.

Most other posts will stay roughly the same, with a few losing troops.

The omnibus appropriations bill approved this week by Congress provides almost $380 million for military construction at the post. Dicks said that funding level will have to be sustained or even grow.

Dicks and other lawmakers also were concerned about how the growth would affect nearby communities and school districts.

“We are going to have to keep working on impact aid,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, whose district includes Fort Lewis.

Dicks said that later this year, the Army will take over 510 housing units at the adjacent McChord Air Force Base.

Under current plans, McChord and Fort Lewis are expected to combine some functions and operate jointly in the next several years.

In announcing the new assignments, Gen. Richard Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, said that the Army already has signed up about half of the 65,000 active-duty soldiers it plans on adding by 2010.

Fort Lewis has traditionally been thought of as the main deployment point if there were hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, but that has changed, Smith said.

“It is now our west point power projection point into the Pacific as well as the (Persian) Gulf,” Smith said.

Both of Washington’s senators, Democrats Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, said the additional troops headed for Fort Lewis reflect its military importance.

A senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Murray also said she will work on finding help for the communities to handle the growth.

Les Blumenthal: 202-383-0008

lblumenthal@mcclatchydc.com