“Today feels like Christmas in June for us, and we’re opening a $3.1 million present from great Uncle Sam,” Col. Christian Haliday, Commanding Officer at MCLB said at a ribbon cutting event Wednesday.
Haliday thanked Congress, without whose support, he said, the project, funded through a 2008 federal appropriation, would not have been possible, as well as local contractors and subcontractors who raised the building in just six months.
The Combat Vehicle Preservation and Maintenance Facility, resembling a gigantic drive-through quick-lube, will be used to perform routine maintenance on the base’s fleet of several thousand light-armored vehicles, officials said.
The facility’s opening demonstrates “an investment in the installation, increasing the value of MCLB to the Marine Corps and to the nation,” Haliday said.
Doug Anderson, Deputy Director of Distribution Management for Marine Corps Logistics Command, which resides at the base, said the “enhanced capabilities” of the project were “squarely aligned with Maj. Gen. (Willie) Williams’ strategic vision of best-value logistics solutions for the warfighter.”
The new facility consolidates preservation and maintenance teams previously “scattered” around MCLB into one central location and increases nighttime and bad-weather capabilities, Anderson said.
The project took five years — “Five years of learning and five years of trying to improve a process that I knew was not as good as it could be,” said Project Coordinator Mike Layfield.
In a single location, personnel will service every type of vehicle housed at MCLB, which includes 8,000-9,000 pieces of rolling stock, Layfield said.
“The biggest measure of improvement I can see is the quality of life for people who were out in the elements,” he said.