APG growth more than BRAC

The 72,900-acre post is Harford’s largest employer. Col. Jeffrey Weissman, 46, the garrison’s commander since July 2007, talks about BRAC and the changes it’s bringing to the 90-year-old base.

What will be the biggest changes at Aberdeen, and how will they affect the look and feel of the base?

When I got here, I realized that the BRAC transformation is more than just BRAC.

Our current tenants are growing and expanding, and we’re reinvigorating and upgrading the gates, roads, intersections and power infrastructure. And we’re improving the quality of life for the military and their families.

The challenge is synchronizing all our efforts — you don’t want to tear up the same roads more than one time.

We’re losing the Ordinance Center and School [moving from Edgewood to Fort Lee, Va.], but we’re gaining many, many civilians [an estimated 9,700 civilian employees and embedded defense contractors].

With the changing population, we’ve got to look at the morale, welfare and recreation-type activities we provide here and look ahead to what we’ll need in the future.

Even before BRAC, we were working on our Residential Community Initiative, which privatizes Army family housing and provides those who live on-base with better housing. As our military population goes down overall, we’re looking to create higher-quality housing on-post.

It’s all about establishing communities and neighborhoods, creating playgrounds, clubhouses and amenities for shopping, dining and recreation. It’s like if you were buying a house in any other community, this will have all those same amenities you’d look for.

As a relatively new commander at APG, you arrived at a critical juncture. How has your experience prepared you for the task of getting the base ready for BRAC?

I served about two years in Iraq, from summer 2005 through 2006, working in Camp Victory in Baghdad as a base transition officer.

We transferred and turned over bases to the Iraqi security forces and other government agencies.

It was very interesting work, not only with other countries in the coalition, but also with other forces in Iraq. About 30 bases were turned over to the Iraqis in the summer of ’06.

In terms of professional development, it was good to work the military side and the political side as well. Having to work with all those different players was really eye-opening.

Working with officials here has some of the same elements, and building relationships and building partnerships is even more important.

Personally, it was important that I was there, doing what our servicemen and servicewomen have been doing.

Having recent experience in Iraq brings me a knowledge of what’s going on there and the importance of the mission here — that we are directly supporting missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How is Aberdeen supporting those missions?

Our operations tempo — because of the global war on terror — for most tenants is just incredible.

The Army Testing Command’s requirements and opportunities have just exploded. We’ve really stepped up testing and evaluation.

The MRAP [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle], for example, is a very important piece of equipment for our war-fighters that’s been tested right here.

BRAC will bring us even more of that support currently being done from Fort Monmouth [N.J.].

Between C4ISR [Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] and CERDEC [Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, which develops communications and intelligence systems], we’ll be the premier source for developing and testing a lot of the equipment used by our war-fighters.

What kind of cooperation is necessary to get the base ready for all the jobs being moved by 2011?

We’re extremely well tied in with the municipalities, the county and the state. We’re participating in the information-sharing with the lieutenant governor’s sub-Cabinet.

Lt. Gov. [Anthony] Brown has toured the base to see what’s growing and what’s needed.

We’re working with the [Chesapeake Science and Security Corridor] and the county’s HEAT center on what kind of career training we’ll need new workers to have, what infrastructure we’ll need.

That’s another challenge: Synchronizing what we’re doing on-post with what’s going on off-post.

The state was running a deficit, and there are challenges ahead with the transportation upgrades, but the governor and lieutenant governor are committed to helping.

They’re well aware of what our requirements are, and it really comes down to transportation and education. School infrastructure is big, and Harford County’s already working on that. They’re both working on upgrading the intersections from [Interstate] 95.

We do understand their challenges, and we share information, but we can’t do anything about infrastructure outside the gate.

In terms of improvements on-base, the Army and the Department of Defense have been extremely supportive of BRAC. Everything’s on schedule for 2011.

Col. Jeffrey Weissman

» Age: 46

» Facts: Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., raised on Long Island. Married to Vickie Brockman. The couple have six children.

» Education: Commissioned as a second lieutenant (Air Defense Artillery) from the U.S. Military Academy, 1983. Additional military education includes the Air Assault School, Airborne School, Command and General Staff College and U.S. Army War College. Bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s in strategic studies.

» Experience: Commander, 187th Ordnance Battalion, Fort Jackson, S.C. (2001-03); Ordnance proponancy officer at the U.S. Army Ordnance Center and Schools at Aberdeen Proving Ground (2003-04); Multi-National Forces/Iraq base closure and transition chief (Baghdad, 2005); until being reassigned to APG, served at the Pentagon as chief of maintenance policy for the Army.

Source: Aberdeen Proving Ground Web site

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com