thedrifter
05-15-07, 07:38 AM
Air station missing club tradition
By Trista Talton - ttalton@militarytimes.com
Posted : May 21, 2007
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. — Officers here have a message for their brothers across the Corps who like to meet at officers’ clubs: Enjoy it if you’ve got it.
Gone are the days when pilots at Cherry Point would meet at the o-club for drinks, cigars and long-winded retellings of this mission or that. The o-club was torn down in September, and the staff noncommissioned officers’ club was closed a year ago. When they’re rebuilt, they will probably come back as a single unit. And that likely won’t happen for at least another 2� to three years.
As all good Marines do, the officers here have learned to adapt and overcome, hanging out at the air station’s new bar, which can hold about 100 people — more if they trickle out into a lobby and covered porch beyond the bar doors.
Still, there’s a loss of tradition and heritage, one that’s in the financial balance between the red and black.
“It’s frustrating for us,” said Col. Mark King, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing chief of staff. “From a wing perspective and, as Marines in general, we have historical roots with camaraderie where the club has been a place to get together. The general can’t pick up the phone and say ‘I want all my officers to meet me for happy hour today.’ It ain’t going to happen.”
To understand how the air station got to this point, you have to go back more than six decades, when the staff NCO club opened to Marines in 1942. Five years later and with a similar riverfront view, officers got their club.
“What they did in those days was use asbestos in their construction,” said Paul Pisano, deputy director for Marine Corps Community Services at the air station.
Asbestos was commonly used for insulation and as a fire retardant. The mineral fiber’s health hazards to humans were realized around the 1970s.
The asbestos in the o-club was disturbed during repairs in 2002-03, Pisano said.
“Our guys went in to check to see how bad it was,” he said. “We thought it was confined to one space.”
That wasn’t the case and, in May 2004, after milling over what would have been a bill in the several millions to remedy the problem, the building was closed.
At that point, the staff NCO club had been closed for two years. The commanding general at the time wanted to consolidate the two clubs for economic reasons — something the Corps started seeing about 10 years ago. Since the o-club had more space than the staff NCO club, the latter was closed.
“When you have two clubs, you have two huge utility bills,” Pisano said. “You have double the staff, double the supplies needed to run it.”
After the o-club was closed, the staff NCO club was put back into business in July 2004. When maintenance needed to be done on the then-63-year-old building, which was in need of a new roof and boiler, the same material that shut the o-club down ultimately closed the staff NCO club.
“We saw the writing on the wall,” Pisano said.
That club was closed in April 2006. Since then, there has been no formal places to have a party, mess night, dining in or a hail and farewell — all traditional events that require a good deal of space — within the air station’s gates. The small city of Havelock, which Cherry Point calls home, and slightly bigger cities beyond offer larger spaces such as convention centers. The problem is that Marines can’t go out in town in their cammies.
So the money to come up with a combined club has to catch up to the demand.
And that’s no small feat for Marine Corps Community Services, which is in charge of operating o-clubs and staff NCO clubs.
Officers clubs long ago strayed from three-meals-a-day service. To keep financially afloat, MCCS has to come up with different ways to attract business. For example, the clubs on Okinawa, Japan, have slot machines.
“You can’t expect a vintage 1942 building to attract a young Marine born in 1985,” Pisano said.
Looking ahead
The concept for a new, combined club would be a multipurpose facility where traditional Marine Corps social functions could be held.
It includes separate bars and eating areas for staff NCOs and officers, a family restaurant open to all hands and a ballroom that can be partitioned into sections. The building would include 27,000 square feet and would, ideally, be built where the old o-club stood overlooking the Neuse River. Pisano said the view might attract weddings and catered events.
MCCS at Cherry Point has submitted a proposed design to its higher headquarters in Quantico, Va. The cost of the proposed building wasn’t available at press time.
As for breaking even, Pisano said, “It’s not going to be easy, but we really believe with our design and all the other pieces, we can make it happen.”
Ellie
By Trista Talton - ttalton@militarytimes.com
Posted : May 21, 2007
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. — Officers here have a message for their brothers across the Corps who like to meet at officers’ clubs: Enjoy it if you’ve got it.
Gone are the days when pilots at Cherry Point would meet at the o-club for drinks, cigars and long-winded retellings of this mission or that. The o-club was torn down in September, and the staff noncommissioned officers’ club was closed a year ago. When they’re rebuilt, they will probably come back as a single unit. And that likely won’t happen for at least another 2� to three years.
As all good Marines do, the officers here have learned to adapt and overcome, hanging out at the air station’s new bar, which can hold about 100 people — more if they trickle out into a lobby and covered porch beyond the bar doors.
Still, there’s a loss of tradition and heritage, one that’s in the financial balance between the red and black.
“It’s frustrating for us,” said Col. Mark King, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing chief of staff. “From a wing perspective and, as Marines in general, we have historical roots with camaraderie where the club has been a place to get together. The general can’t pick up the phone and say ‘I want all my officers to meet me for happy hour today.’ It ain’t going to happen.”
To understand how the air station got to this point, you have to go back more than six decades, when the staff NCO club opened to Marines in 1942. Five years later and with a similar riverfront view, officers got their club.
“What they did in those days was use asbestos in their construction,” said Paul Pisano, deputy director for Marine Corps Community Services at the air station.
Asbestos was commonly used for insulation and as a fire retardant. The mineral fiber’s health hazards to humans were realized around the 1970s.
The asbestos in the o-club was disturbed during repairs in 2002-03, Pisano said.
“Our guys went in to check to see how bad it was,” he said. “We thought it was confined to one space.”
That wasn’t the case and, in May 2004, after milling over what would have been a bill in the several millions to remedy the problem, the building was closed.
At that point, the staff NCO club had been closed for two years. The commanding general at the time wanted to consolidate the two clubs for economic reasons — something the Corps started seeing about 10 years ago. Since the o-club had more space than the staff NCO club, the latter was closed.
“When you have two clubs, you have two huge utility bills,” Pisano said. “You have double the staff, double the supplies needed to run it.”
After the o-club was closed, the staff NCO club was put back into business in July 2004. When maintenance needed to be done on the then-63-year-old building, which was in need of a new roof and boiler, the same material that shut the o-club down ultimately closed the staff NCO club.
“We saw the writing on the wall,” Pisano said.
That club was closed in April 2006. Since then, there has been no formal places to have a party, mess night, dining in or a hail and farewell — all traditional events that require a good deal of space — within the air station’s gates. The small city of Havelock, which Cherry Point calls home, and slightly bigger cities beyond offer larger spaces such as convention centers. The problem is that Marines can’t go out in town in their cammies.
So the money to come up with a combined club has to catch up to the demand.
And that’s no small feat for Marine Corps Community Services, which is in charge of operating o-clubs and staff NCO clubs.
Officers clubs long ago strayed from three-meals-a-day service. To keep financially afloat, MCCS has to come up with different ways to attract business. For example, the clubs on Okinawa, Japan, have slot machines.
“You can’t expect a vintage 1942 building to attract a young Marine born in 1985,” Pisano said.
Looking ahead
The concept for a new, combined club would be a multipurpose facility where traditional Marine Corps social functions could be held.
It includes separate bars and eating areas for staff NCOs and officers, a family restaurant open to all hands and a ballroom that can be partitioned into sections. The building would include 27,000 square feet and would, ideally, be built where the old o-club stood overlooking the Neuse River. Pisano said the view might attract weddings and catered events.
MCCS at Cherry Point has submitted a proposed design to its higher headquarters in Quantico, Va. The cost of the proposed building wasn’t available at press time.
As for breaking even, Pisano said, “It’s not going to be easy, but we really believe with our design and all the other pieces, we can make it happen.”
Ellie