Com-Central.net

- Joe_D

Yeah, and when the think it's time to leave they can get extended.

Joe D

As a bonus, as long as we are at war some extensions will be involuntary and indefinite! Bring a couple extra pairs of drawers...you may be there for a while!

C

Article in this week's Army Times:

Plan would make Army museum convenient for tourists

By Jim Tice
Staff writer

A proposed realignment plan for Fort Belvoir, Va., would place the National Museum of the Army two miles from the main post, just off Interstate 95, one of America’s most heavily traveled highways and tourist routes.

The “preferred site plan� for Fort Belvoir focuses on requirements of the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission report. That directive calls for the Defense Department to shift 22,000 employees from around the national capitol region to Fort Belvoir over the next five years.


The work force expansion will be accompanied by an ambitious building campaign that includes a $300 million national museum for the Army and an expansion of Dewitt Army Community Hospital.

The museum, along with facilities for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and 18,000 employees, would be built on the Engineer Proving Ground, an 800-acre tract of vacant land on the west side of Interstate 95.

The proposed site plan is subject to an environmental review and final Army approval, a process that could delay the start of all projects, including the museum.

Retired Maj. Gen. John Herrling, senior director of the museum fund-raising campaign, said the environmental review “will require several months and possibly up to a year … which suggests there will be a delay in the originally announced opening date for the museum of 2011.�

The Army Historical Foundation, which oversees the museum project, is proceeding with its fund-raising campaign on the assumption that groundbreaking will occur in 2009, and the museum will be completed in 2012 or 2013, Herrling said.

Operating under a charter from Congress, the foundation is expected to raise $200 million, enough to cover two-thirds of the museum’s $300 million projected cost. Contributors include defense contractors, federal, state and local governments, soldiers, veterans, veterans organizations and the general public.

Herrling confirmed that the Army is exploring the possibility of going into a joint venture with a private developer to make the museum a “visitor destination� for tourists in the Washington area.

Sources said that under this option, which could help defray some of the museum costs, the Army would partner with private industry to build and operate a conference center, hotel and dining facilities that would complement the museum.

Final decisions on site selection, and the joint venture proposal, will be made by the Army.

“Whatever those decisions, we do not see them affecting our goal of raising $200 million in contributions to build the museum,� said Herrling, former chief executive officer of the American Battle Monuments Commission, which raised $180 million for the National World War II Memorial.

Officials estimate that once open, the museum complex will attract 5,000 to 6,000 visitors daily, or about 1 million annually.

Unlike the Army’s 43 other museums, which focus on specific eras, installations or units, the national museum will cover the Army’s entire history, from colonial-era militias to the war on terrorism.

Exhibits will be high tech, featuring actual equipment, weapons, simulations and other media that will “connect� with visitors, particularly young people.

Judson E. Bennett, director of the planned museum, earlier said, “We will show the role of the Army in the development of the nation, and it will be done through the eyes of the soldiers.�