$240 million earmarked for bases
May 09,2006
CHRIS MAZZOLINI
DAILY NEWS STAFF

The House Armed Services Committee is recommending more than $240 million in construction spending projects at Camp Lejeune and New River Air Station in the 2007 defense budget.

The proposal, contained in H.R. 5122, includes $172 million for facilities that will eventually house the new Marine Special Operations Command.

The bill, which authorizes the Pentagon’s $512.9 billion operating budget, passed the House Armed Services Committee last week. It will need to be debated and passed both the House and the Senate, then signed by the President before it becomes law.

The bill, which is expected to be debated on the House floor sometime this week, calls for the creation of a number of facilities at Lejeune that will be used by MARSOC.

According to the bill, the MARSOC projects include:

Headquarters facility, $51.6 million;

Intelligence operations facility, $20.4 million;

Maintenance complex, $22.1 million;

Bachelor enlisted quarters, $61.9 million;

Battalion aid station, $3.4 million;

Enlisted dining facility, $13.4 million.

Maj. Cliff Gilmore, a MARSOC spokesman, said the facilities would be located at Lejeune’s Stone Bay. Preliminary schedules have the headquarters being complete in 2009.

“The (military construction) process is a pretty complicated process,” Gilmore said. “As we move forward, our main concern is we develop a facility that meets our operational needs and ensures we can put the capabilities into the fight that we need to put in.”

Right now, MARSOC is being headquartered in the offices of the now-defunct 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, an anti-terrorism brigade that was created after 9/11 and disbanded when MARSOC came online in late February. Although their permanent facilities are a few years away, Gilmore said there are adequate space and facilities to house new command and train and deploy the subordinate units.

“For the short term and for the immediate future, MARSOC headquarters and units are using existing facilities at Camp Lejeune,” he said. “Right now, we have the space and facilities we need. But it’s tight. We’ve got some folks sharing office spaces and working in fairly tight quarters, but it doesn’t impede carrying out the mission at this point.”

MARSOC is the Marine Corps first permanent and official entry into the special operations community. The unit, commanded by Maj. Gen. Dennis Heljik, runs under the auspices of the Special Operations Command.

Special operations will consist of two battalions made up of nine companies (five will be stationed at Lejeune, another four at Camp Pendleton, Calif.). The first of those, Fox Company, is training to deploy with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

There also will be as many as 24 foreign military training units, a Marine special operations support group and a special ops school with branches on both coasts.

The whole command will eventually hold 2,500 Marines and sailors. As of Monday, the unit had 304 personnel officially on the MARSOC dossier. Of that total, 227 are with the foreign military training unit and another 77 with the headquarters unit. By May 15, about 200 Marines with 2nd Force Reconnaissance Battalion will officially transfer to MARSOC and become part of the special ops battalion.

The defense budget act includes other Camp Lejeune and New River Air Station projects. At New River, $21.5 million will go toward a new aircraft maintenance hanger, and about $11 million will go toward relocating the Reserve Center and building a reserve training center vehicle maintenance facility.

Another $7.6 million will upgrade Lejeune’s ammunition supply point and $4.7 million toward armories for II Marine Expeditionary Force. Finally, $15.1 will go to the second phase of consolidated academic instruction, an all-in-one facility for teaching logistics and support skills at Camp Johnson.

To view the full text of the bill, visit thomas.loc.gov and type H.R. 5122 in the “Search Bill Text” box.

Contact Chris Mazzolini at cmazzolini@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, Ext. 229.

Ellie