Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Belvoir and Quantico leaders keep lines of communication open

Fort Belvoir and Quantico Marine Corps Base are changing. Wednesday at the Montclair Country Club, leaders from both installations briefed members of the Prince William Regional Chamber of Commerce on the growth occurring due to Base Realignment and Closure 2005.

“BRAC is my number two priority,” said Belvoir Installation Commander Col. Jerry L. Blixt. “BRAC is law. We’re going to execute BRAC as stated in law. That’s the mission we’ve been given and we’re going to do that.”
Blixt said his number one priority is the Army installation itself and that he remains focused on solving on force protection, personnel
and infrastructure issues as well as BRAC.

“I’m trying to create an environment that’s better,” Blixt said.

“Our requirements are far outpacing our resources,” he continued. “We’ve got about a $200 million shortfall in infrastructure funding.”
Blixt said the Department of the Army is working to secure the money that will be needed to cover the costs of BRAC-related construction at Belvoir.

Quantico Commander Col. Charles Dallachie said his number one challenge is how to handle and manage BRAC-related growth.
“I probably spend half my working day dealing with facilities and the fact that our base is old,” he said. “It’s been there since 1917 and we have some buildings on the base that have been there since the early 1920s that we still use.”

Noting that 10,000 of Quantico’s 64,000 acres are developed while the remaining 54,000 are pristine, Dallachie added that, “the pressure for growth and the pressure to accommodate the additional missions we’re getting forces us to grow, but we have to grow smartly.”

BRAC Commission Recommendation 131 directed all of the DoD’s criminal investigative and counter-intelligence activities be relocated to Quantico by Sept. 15, 2011. The agencies will bring approximately 2,658 additional people - 351 military, 1,752 civilians, and 555 contractors with an additional student population average of 263 per day - to the Marine base, said Joe Rosewarne, director of the Quantico Business Performance Office.