By Jim Baer
“Nothing happens until something moves.”
–Albert Einstein
Every working day of the year, more than 14,200 military personnel report to Scott Air Force Base, Belleville, Ill. to carry out a complex mission of transporting the basic needs of
a fighting military force throughout the
world. All hands participation equals the sum of a well-organized, functioning machine. Other-wise known as, everyone plays an important role in securing the mission of
this command.
Walking across the sprawling 3,600-acre complex, a visitor will rapidly see soldiers and airmen in green and brown fatigues; sailors in crisp white dress uniforms, civilians in business attire. The notion that this is an air base devoted solely to the mission of the United States Air Force went out with the bathwater and the Department of Defense BRAC (Base Realignment and Closing Commission) edicts of 2005.
What’s big on the base these days is multiple construction projects. Let’s say, there’s a variety of construction and modernization projects, totaling almost $188 million dollars to prepare this sprawling military complex so it can keep its primary commitment to maintain the peace while fighting the global war on terrorism.
The centerpiece of current construction is the USTRANSCOM (U.S. Transportation Command facility), a three-story building to be directly connected to the headquarter’s building that presently serves the transportation effort.
The U.S. Army Engineering District, Louisville announced on February 15 the award of the construction contract to River City Construction L.L.C., East Peoria, Ill. to build the new command facility. The total contract value, including options is a shade under $100 million dollars.
According to Steven W. Coyle, director of BRAC and Engineering for USTRANSCOM, the good news is that Scott is on the list of bases to grow, not close, under congressional and Department of Defense supervision. “However, now our goal is to consolidate, and to do more with less (money) to meet the mission,” says Coyle from a corner office perched
strategically to eyeball the day-to-day progress. Towering cranes loom over the site as piers are being driven into softened earth.
Scott AFB is not your grandfather’s Quonset hut complex anymore. Beautiful, functional gleaming and sleek glass, steel and brick buildings dot the expanse along Scott AFB drive. Command buildings with matching brown-tone steel roofs stretch the four-mile length of the complex from the Belleville gate to the Shiloh gate. Land is at a premium alongside this well-traveled strip. Interspersed is tidy on-base colonial-style housing for senior officers and senior enlisted personnel and their families.
Functional, Secured and Award Winning
The design of this new building is so flexible;
yet smart in function and use that it recently won a merit award for concept design by the United States Air Force.
The 180,000-square-foot, three-story building with sloping steel roof will house more than 1,100 joint-use personnel on three distinctly different floors and will be connected by a sky bridge to the existing facility, making it the largest command headquarters of any type at Scott.
The facility’s open-floor plan maximizes flexibility to accommodate frequent mission changes and maintains highly secure operational requirements. Personnel in the building will be able to talk directly to troops in the field, anywhere in the world every day of the year. Most office spaces will be open for collaborative conversation and there will be multiple conference rooms fitted with the most sophisticated and modern technologically-advanced communications gear.
All of this exhibits the military’s ability to do new business in such a rapidly changing world. The Air Mobility Command provides global reach far beyond military missions. Relief efforts have been directed from Scott AFB to deal with tragedies relating to hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, to missions of mercy flying food, medicine and personnel to hotspots around the globe if and when needed on a moments notice.
A key component of consolidation is moving the U.S. Army Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) from Fort Eustis, Va. to Scott AFB. Already, more than 500 of those workers from Virginia, both civilian and military have been transferred to Scott, and they are already working out of a temporary modular structure, affectionately dubbed “Big Red.” Other tenant partners in the new building will be planning functions of the Air Force Tanker Airlift Control Center, the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC), and the USTRANSCOM Deployment Distribution Operations Center, and other units in the Defense Transportation System yet to be announced.
As mentioned, USTRANSCOM is a joint services command with the following personnel breakdown: 593 contractors; 449 civilian employees; 303 Air Force personnel; 208 Army, 166 Navy and 19 Marines.
Air Mobility has numerous and varied missions. The Air Force provides airlift, refueling and aero-medical evacuation worldwide. The Military Sealift Command (U.S. Navy) provides reliable and efficient sealift, combat logistics forces, special missions using ships and maritime services to meet customer needs. Command tankers and air lifters have supported peacekeeping missions the past two decades in Bosnia, Iraq, Cambodia, Somalia, Rwanda and Haiti and as recently as August to Georgia.
The Military Surface Deployment & Distri-bution Command provides global surface deployment command and control and distribution operations to meet national security objectives in both peace and wartime.
“This is an enormous construction project and could not be funded in one fiscal year. Actually, (BRAC) funding is done over five different fiscal years,” says Coyle. “When the construction is complete (in 2010) we will become the largest administrative building on the base,” he says. “It takes a team of 50 to 75 personnel on a daily basis, just to provide oversight for the construction,” says Coyle. Once complete, six buildings will be consolidated into four.
Two team members of that oversight team are Cheryl Bievenue, chief programs flight director for the 375th Civil Engineer Squadron and her partner, James Gillis III, chief design and project manager for the civil engineers.
“This building (the new TRANSCOM consolidated facility) is a design build project,” says Bievenue. The U.S. Corp of Engineers, Louisville are the day-to-day project managers. Bievenue pointed out that the new building will have a Silver Building LEED certification.
The new structure will reflect modern forms of energy preservation. “We are emphasizing energy conservation. We will have controls on the lights, motion sensors, everything to conserve energy. We are using a variety of recycled materials and our goal is to not break the budget,” she reveals.
The civil engineers overall responsibility is to oversee new construction while maintaining existing base facilities. They do everything from maintaining curbs and guttering to overseeing multi-million dollar construction projects.
“Our problem is land. We do have a lot of land, but people will have to walk a little further with all this new construction,” she says. “Everyone wants to be in that corridor along Scott Drive and sometimes, that’s just a problem,” she says.
Gillis, who has been employed on base since 2004, but grew up in an Air Force family, says many changes are coming to the Scott location. “Since BRAC, we’ve seen ten-fold changes. Requirements are increased so that we need a lot of expansion, but at the same time, our security requirements are always heightened. In some cases, we are very crowded. We have service personnel working out of trailers and boxcars,” he says.
Congressman Jerry Costello:
Prominent Civic Advocate
There is no member of the congressional delegation than U.S. Rep. Jerry Costello,
D-Belleville who better understands the overall role of Scott Air Force Base. Costello thinks decisions of the BRAC Commission have had a very positive impact upon the future of the base.
“The result of the (2005) BRAC round was very good for Scott AFB, bringing 800 jobs, new KC-135R tankers, the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command from Virginia and an Air Force Logistics Support Center. The decisions of the BRAC Commission fulfilled the vision that we have had for the base for two decades.
Scott is growing, and has room to take on more missions. As Defense Secretary (Robert) Gates says when he visited earlier this summer. Scott is one of the three most important Air Force bases in the
country,” says Costello.
Costello knew fully Scott needed to do upgrades to meet all of the new challenges for the Air Force going forward. “There is an ongoing need to upgrade and maintain the facilities at Scott. As the base has added missions over the last decade, space issues have become more acute. The project, along with the Security Forces Operation building that just broke ground and the Joint Intelligence Facility that we are working to fund will help meet these needs.”
Buildings aside, Costello is proud of the overall mission and the personnel who make it all happen. “I cannot talk about Scott without mentioning the airmen and women and all the employees that work on the base. Scott is incredibly important to our region, accounting for over $2 billion to our economy. It is the largest employer in Illinois south of Springfield. They are a tremendous part of our communities, adding so much richness and vibrancy to the quality of life here. We thank them for their untiring service and for all that they do for the area,” says Congressman Costello.
Scott Air Force Base is now better able to tackle all the logistic challenges that face the mightiest military fighting force in the world. Congressional and local support have kept the base on task and well financed to meet these ongoing challenges that lie ahead. Albert Einstein would have been very proud today of all those airmen and women who are accomplishing this mission on a never-ending basis. |
