Posts Tagged ‘mission support/community partnerships’

The deputy commander for Camp Lejeune assured local officials attending a community breakfast Tuesday that the base on the coast of North Carolina is too vital to the Marine Corps’ mission to be closed in a future BRAC round. “Camp Lejeune is [staying],” said Col. Darrell Thacker, deputy commander for Marine Corps Installations East-Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. “But as we transition from 202,000 Marines down to 182,000 Marines, there will be impacts on the base …

A local school board is considering establishing a K-8 charter school for the children of military personnel and civilian workers at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany to better improve local support for the installation in southwestern Georgia. “School systems are very important to military families, and I think a charter school with the Marine Base would be of benefit to the community, especially during the next round of BRAC hearings,” a member of the Dougherty County School Board said Monday. The school would be intended to stem the loss of children from the base to the school systems of surrounding counties, reported the Albany Herald. The school board endorsed the proposal to form an ad hoc committee to begin exploratory discussions with the base.

The Pentagon’s senior military officers rendered a dire portrait of how automatic spending cuts combined with operating under a continuing resolution for the remainder of fiscal 2013 would harm the nation’s military, during their testimony Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. If the automatic defense cuts — which would approach $500 billion through FY 2021 — go ahead, the Army will curtail training for 80 percent of its ground forces and across all of its specialties, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said. The service already has imposed a civilian hiring freeze and will terminate an estimated 3,100 temporary and term employees …

The possibility that the Army’s drawdown of 72,000 troops by fiscal year 2020 could result in the loss of Fort Benning’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team is a point of concern as well as frustration for officials in Columbus, Ga. An Army decision to inactivate the post’s brigade would result in the loss of 7,074 soldiers and civilian employees, and 10,741 family members, according to the Programmatic Environmental Assessment for Army 2020 Force Structure Realignment released last month. The Chattahoochee Valley region could lose up to 9,000 jobs …

Marine Corps representatives last week briefed commissioners and planners from Pamlico County, located on the coast of North Carolina, about the possible ways a wind farm could interfere with flight operations at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. The representatives from Marine Corps Installations East told the county officials that tall wind turbines present a threat of collision to low-flying aircraft and can hamper the use of radar …

U.S. Africa Command headquarters will remain in Stuttgart, the Defense Department announced last week, after determining that the advantages of being located in Germany outweigh the added costs. “The secretary, informed by the judgment of the AFRICOM commander and a study of locations, decided the current location serves the operational needs of AFRICOM better than a location in the continental United States,” said DOD spokeswoman Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins …

The Air Force would be forced to postpone the start of 22 new military construction projects if automatic defense cuts are imposed beginning March 1, according to an Air Force presentation to Congress. Sequestration would affect smaller projects as well, requiring the service to defer work on more than 420 non-emergency facilities sustainment and restoration/modernization projects at more than 140 installations …

Lawmakers in eastern North Carolina are considering an ordinance regulating structures higher than 350 feet as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the flying mission at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. The ordinance would require structures such as wind turbines, cell towers and buildings to obtain a permit from Craven County. The move comes as neighboring Pamlico County is addressing concerns of the Marine Corps about a proposed wind farm …

Operating under a continuing resolution through Sept. 30 and coping with across-the-board spending reductions slated to go into effect March 1 would “distress and shock” Army installations and their host communities, according to an Army memo outlining the impacts of addressing an $18 billion shortfall in its operation and maintenance account over the remainder of fiscal 2013. The economic impact to communities would be directly caused by terminations of temporary and term employees, wide-scale reduction of support contracts with more than 3,000 industry partners, and furloughs of all 251,000 Army civilian employees for up to 22 days, according to the memo …

For the second year in a row the Pentagon will ask Congress for a new round of base closures, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters Wednesday during a preview of the department’s fiscal 2014 budget request. The announcement came as no surprise after Congress roundly rejected the administration’s proposal last year to hold BRAC rounds in 2013 and 2015. “We will have to because … you can’t have a huge infrastructure supporting a reduced force …