CAMP ELMORE, Virginia -- CAMP ELMORE, Va. -- Fleet Marine Force Atlantic (FMFLANT), U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command (MARFORCOM), and Headquarters and Service Battalion (HQSVCBN) leadership teamed up with members of Navy Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Mid-Atlantic and Heritage Contracting to signify the start of the Marine Camp Elmore (MCE-9) building refurbishment project at Camp Elmore in Norfolk, Virginia, March 24, 2021.
Built in 1978, the MCE-9 building was originally used as a training facility and small arms storage armory in support of Marine Corps Security Force (MCSF) Battalion followed in later years by Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team (FAST), Alpha Company. The facility continued supporting the FAST mission under the MCSF Regiment until about 3 years ago. It was vacated when the FAST mission relocated and consolidated into new facilities at Naval Weapons Station, Yorktown.
MCE-9 will have a second life through a major renovation in support of the Marine Corps Plans and Operations headquarters element.
“After standing for more than four decades until becoming a hollow use of square-footage, MCE-9 will undergo a makeover known as an Infrastructure Reset (IR) that will allow for this existing footprint to function in support of another critical Marine Corps mission,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nicholas Mueller, Civil Engineer Corps, Facilities Director, G4, FMFLANT, MARFORCOM, and U.S. Marine Corps Forces Northern Command. “We are taking a building that is essentially nearing the end of its life and giving it a new future, and in this case, one that is designed to endure another thirty-years or more. It will also be fully Life Safety Code compliant with all new building systems running more environmentally efficient than ever before.”
This event kicks off the conversion of previously used training rooms, classrooms, and administrative offices into fully functioning, mission-capable headquarters spaces in support of the Commandant’s force restructure initiatives.
“This initiative includes the creation and partial divestment from FMFLANT to Plans & Operations (P&O), South,” said Mueller.
The interior reconfiguration will accommodate the new P&O, South detachment. The upgraded administrative workspaces will be occupied by personnel assigned to manpower, reserve integration, plans, forward-deployed plans and execution, global force analysis, aviation force analysis, and readiness functions.
“A myriad of people have come together to make this possible,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Doug Knotts, P.E., Director, Facilities Engineering and Acquisition Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Command. “We are energetically enthused to get this project under construction so we can hand over a building that is mission ready.
The renovation is slated to be complete in August of 2021.