Defense Communities 360 Headlines

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday named the 2013 recipients of the Commander in Chief’s Annual Award for Installation Excellence, which recognizes installations’ exemplary support of DOD missions: Fort Rucker, Ala.; Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif.; Naval Support Activity Panama City, Panama City Beach, Fla.; Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Miss.; and Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, Columbus, Ohio …

Air Force officials and representatives from 75 companies discussed new ways the private sector could partner with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, during an industry forum held at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., earlier this month. In the energy arena, for example, the agency wants to do more third-party financed projects, including energy savings performance contracts, utility energy service contracts and renewable energy power purchase agreements, said Ken Gray, acting energy director …

Lawmakers on the six subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee are expected to tackle a number of high-profile issues when then mark up the fiscal 2014 defense authorization bill this week — including the military’s handling of sexual assault, women in combat and oversight of drone strikes — but initiatives proposed by the Pentagon to help curb spending likely will be ignored. For starters, the Readiness Subcommittee is almost certain to leave out authorization for a base closure round in 2015 as DOD has requested …

In a process the Air Force calls “back-casting,” budget officials plan to take the service’s budget priorities for fiscal 2015 and apply them to funding levels in FY 2013 and 2014 in an effort to eliminate spending that no longer is needed. Officials believe the approach will help to smooth the transition to successive budget requests, as well as help the service manage sequestration, reported InsideDefense.com.

Key components of military strength, including force structure, acquisition programs and missions, likely would bear the brunt of cutbacks under a range of budget scenarios expected to be offered following a review of defense strategy now underway at the Pentagon. Defense officials would prefer to include base closures and changes to military compensation as ways to slash the budget over the next eight years, but they realize Congress probably won’t endorse those initiatives …

The number of military veterans going to college has taken off since 2009 when education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill first became available. In 2012, 945,052 veterans used their GI Bill education benefits, up from 564,487 in 2009, according to the Veterans Affairs Department. Traditional colleges and universities have not been the biggest beneficiaries, though, as enrollment by veterans at for-profit private universities surpassed four-year public institutions in the 2009-2010 school year …

At next month’s Defense Communities National Summit in Washington, ADC members will be asked to vote on a proposed change to the bylaws that would expand the association’s board of directors from 12 to 14 members (not counting the immediate past president). The change is intended to ensure that all segments of ADC’s diverse membership are adequately represented in the leadership of the association. Members also will vote on extending new terms to five incumbent board members during the annual membership meeting …

The city of Alameda could take possession of a large chunk of the former Naval Air Station Alameda in a matter of weeks, following a vote this week by the City Council to approve the transfer of 509 acres of land and 870 acres of submerged property at the site on San Francisco Bay. The transfer would be the first of four from the Navy at what is now called Alameda Point under a no-cost economic development conveyance …

The military services have installed a total of 130 megawatts of solar photovoltaic energy systems at U.S. installations, and have plans to complete 1.1 gigawatts of new photovoltaic capacity by 2017, according to a new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association. Each of the services is aiming to acquire 1 gigawatt of renewable energy by 2025, a response to rising energy costs, potential energy supply disruptions and the need for more secure and clean energy generation and distribution …

The draft spending allocations for fiscal 2014 released last week by the House Appropriations Committee protect spending on defense, military construction-veterans affairs and homeland security at the expense of domestic programs. The allocations provide a total of $625 billion in FY 2014 for those three national security funding measures, representing a cut of only $4 billion — or less than one percent — from the current enacted level …