Fort Pickett training center sparks hope in a battered region

BLACKSTONE — Local leaders in communities near Fort Pickett hope a planned $461 million training facility for U.S. diplomatic and government personnel will give struggling Southside Virginia a much-needed economic boost.

“This is a culmination of a dream we’ve had, and it’s very encouraging for a rural area that has seen some tough times,” said Del. Thomas C. Wright Jr., R-Lunenburg, who was among local and state officials who toured the site Monday.

When the U.S. State Department announced two weeks ago that the Virginia Army National Guard installation had been chosen to be the home of the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center — beating out almost 80 contenders, including sites in Maryland, Georgia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia after a multiyear search — many in the community breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s potentially the biggest positive thing to happen in our area since Fort Pickett was built in 1942,” Blackstone Mayor Billy Coleburn said.

“I think that $461 million is a huge infusion of construction jobs,” he said, adding: “There are some concerns with traffic, but most merchants downtown would love to have some traffic.”

The announcement adds a new chapter to the story of service and resilience at the installation about 50 miles southwest of Richmond. The fort was recommended for closure as part of the 1995 round of the Base Closure and Realignment Commission. Thousands of acres of the U.S. Army base were transferred to the state Department of Military Affairs and became headquarters for the Virginia National Guard.

Until recently, the State Department has trained some of its foreign relations and embassy staff at a rented car-racing facility in West Virginia. In 2010 — two years before the terrorist attacks in Benghazi that cost four American lives, including that of the ambassador to Libya — the department determined that a modernized training facility was crucial to help train embassy personnel for security threats and emergencies.

Gregory B. Starr, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, said at the briefing at Fort Pickett Monday that the State Department has been looking for a location to house a new training facility for 10 years.

“For many years, at Foreign Services we thought that you train someone to learn the language, you train them in some other skills and then you can send them overseas,” Starr said.

“Today, we’re in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen. We’re in Tripoli and we’re across the Sahel,” a semi-arid region of northern Africa, “and all the places that are high in instability, and many places might even be dangerous for us.”

Starr said the department has looked to the U.S. military, and the other professionals “who have learned that … the more trained they are, the more ready they are for what they have to deal with overseas.”

Fort Pickett, Starr said, is the “perfect partner in the perfect place right here.”

The 41,000-acre installation was constructed shortly after the U.S. entered World War II and is now operated by the Virginia National Guard. It features a combination of open and wooded terrain maneuver areas and 21 ranges capable of supporting almost any weapons system in the U.S. Army inventory. The installation has a rail spur and C-17-capable airfield as well as barracks to support more than 5,000 personnel and morale, welfare and recreation facilities.

“We trained over 100,000 soldiers last year, including Marines, Air Force, Navy and some special forces,” said Lt. Col. Shawn Kerrigan, the deputy garrison commander. “It’s a very unique training environment on the East Coast.”

Chuck Raderstorf, project director with the Foreign Affairs Security Training Center, said the State Department is working closely with the General Services Administration, which is responsible for conducting environmental studies, acquiring sites and providing construction procurement, management and other services. The State Department is in charge of the master planning.

Raderstorf said that the planners first narrowed in on Fort Pickett as early as 2011.

“They had chosen it because it’s near enough to Washington where the State Department personnel are,” said Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who helped push to bring the project to Fort Pickett.

“The Marines security guards that staff some of the embassies are trained in Quantico, and other federal law enforcement and military operations are close,” he said.

In October 2012, the State Department released a draft environmental impact study and conducted the first public meetings. “Everything looked very positive. And in December of 2012 we completed the master plan,” Raderstorf said.

The project suffered a major setback in early 2013, when budget sequestration forced the planners to put it on ice.

“There was this additional due-diligence that frankly was just driven by budgetary politics, sequester, furloughs — they had to tighten the belts, scale back, use some other facilities,” Kaine said.

Last month, the State Department finally announced that Fort Pickett was the final choice — but the initial $900 million plan was scaled back. .

Under the new plan, most of the so-called soft-training facilities — including offices, major classroom buildings, technical laboratories, dining hall and a large business center — will not be constructed at the installation but remain in the Washington area.

Planners are developing a new site plan, which will likely make use of the explosive and firing range areas and a tactical training area.

“We can’t tell you exactly how big it will be or small it will be — that’s what we’ll do over the next two or three months,” Raderstorf said.

Kaine hailed the project’s “significant economic impact” on the region.

“The State Department intends to do about 240 days of training here — in a year, there are 265 non-weekend days,” Kaine said. “There are going to be training hundreds of folks down here for most of the year.”

Rep. Robert Hurt, R-5th, said that the terrorist attack in Benghazi highlighted how dangerous it can be for some in the diplomatic corps and that the new facility will “make sure that the personnel that take care of them have the finest training.”

“Having this activity taking place here also helps with job creation and this investment is very important in an area that has seen some hard times,” Hurt said.

But the work has just begun, said Starr, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security.

“I hope that if we can push everything as fast as we can do, we will stick a shovel in the ground somewhere between 15 and 18 months from now.”

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