Coastal Georgia Military Affairs Coalition

Southeast Georgia, serves as the home of Fort Stewart, the largest military installation east of the Mississippi River. With a positive impact on our employment, education and real estate communities like Liberty County benefit from being “military towns”. With these benefits also comes a certain level of responsibility. This takes the form of providing services to soldiers, families and retirees. Members of the Coastal Georgia Military Affairs Coalition (CGMAC) have largely assumed this responsibility.

What is CGMAC?

Previously known as the Southeast Georgia Friends of Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, Inc. CGMAC was incorporated on July 1, 1999, with the support of the City of Hinesville, Liberty County and the Liberty County Chamber of Commerce. It is a 501c3 non-profit organization and relies on memberships/partnerships to complete its mission. In July 2019, it was reorganized as a progressive regional partnership that includes our military, surrounding communities, local governments, industries, public agencies, businesses and individual partners. This regional approach includes all coastal Georgia military installations and bases. While continuing to support Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield and protecting the communities surrounding them.

What CGMAC does for the military

CGMAC’s mission is to create a regional partnership that supports legislative, economic and quality of life programs so that coastal Georgia remains the best place to live, work, train and deploy for the US military. The organization’s focus is on education, healthcare, housing, childcare, transportation and other issues as they strive to keep our military installations an integral part of our coastal community.

Their stakeholders meet bi-monthly to discuss upcoming opportunities to support installations and plan for programming, collaborating with installations by hosting meetings and forums to further partnerships between the installation and local organizations through the creation of public-private or public-public partnerships. Their board of directors and stakeholders work with advocacy and lobbyist groups in Washington, D.C. to further the goals of the US military and our region.

In 2020, CGMAC was successful in acquiring funding for the construction of an aircraft hangar at Hunter Army Airfield, changing the language of the National Defense Act 2881 concerning Military Basing, and the selection of the 165th Airlift Wing as the 4th site to receive the C-130J aircraft upgrades, and securing funding for 8 aircrafts.

Fort Stewart continues to strengthen community relationships through the implementation of Intergovernmental Support Agreements (IGSAs) to realize cost savings/avoidance for the Army and CGMAC community partners. These partnerships are critical to sustaining/improving support services for soldiers, families and partners from surrounding communities.

The created partnerships with surrounding communities in 2020 & 2021 included:

• Animal control services in Long and Chatham counties
• Grounds and water tower maintenance with the City of Hinesville
• An economic impact study conducted by Georgia Southern

CGMAC Accomplishments

American Defense Communities selected the Coastal Georgia region as a Great American Defense Community in 2021.  The recognition celebrates communities with an exceptional commitment to improving the lives of service members, veterans and their families… “We are extremely honored to be selected as a 2021 Great American Defense Community. The whole region works tirelessly through programs, initiatives and partnerships to improve the quality of life and mission effectiveness. These programs serve over 56,645 military professionals, civilians and family members and the 19,214 retirees who make up coastal Georgia’s military family.” said Mayor Allen Brown, City of Hinesville and CGMAC Chairman.

Community Involvement

The easiest way to help complete the mission with the Coastal Georgia Military Affairs Coalition is to become a member/partner.

For more information, please contact information@libertycounty.org or find them on Facebook.