Command looking ahead to move here
AMC's Griffin says he expects many will follow from Virginia
Friday, November 11, 2005
As with most events in life, timing will be the key for a smooth relocation of the Army Materiel Command from Virginia to Huntsville, the command's top general said Thursday.
Gen. Benjamin S. Griffin said he believes many in his command are looking forward to moving to Huntsville, but the relocation - which must begin within two years - will have to be planned around civilian schedules such as school calendars to ease family moves.
Griffin was here to attend a Veterans Day commemorative dinner at the Von Braun Center which included inducting six veterans into the Madison County Hall of Heroes. Griffin will also be the grand marshal of today's Veterans Day parade.
"I believe many people are certainly looking forward to" moving to Huntsville, Griffin said. "As to how many people might relocate, that will depend on many things, including the timing of when the relocation takes place. I believe many will come here, but I'm sure some people will stay" in the Washington area.
Griffin cited Huntsville's support of the military and the city's natural beauty as lures for AMC employees.
The move of AMC headquarters was a major recommendation made in August by the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission.
Relocating the command's headquarters to Redstone Arsenal will be complicated because of the numerous offices and organizations within AMC that will have to be moved, Griffin said. AMC is the Army's major supply command. Its unofficial motto says, if a soldier shoots it, drives it, flies it, wears it or eats it, the Army Materiel Command provides it, "from beans to bullets, helmets to helicopters, spare parts to spare ribs."
Two AMC representatives will be placed on Redstone to coordinate the early relocation planning, said Griffin, who took over AMC in November 2004.
"There are numerous moves involving a number of people and offices," he said. "It's not a small matter. It'll be a complex, lengthy process."
On Wednesday, Congress allowed the BRAC panel's August recommendations to pass unchallenged. For Huntsville, the panel voted to relocate major commands to the area including the AMC, the bulk of the Missile Defense Agency and the headquarters of the Army Space & Missile Defense Command from the Washington, D.C., area to Redstone.
The moves are expected to bring at least 4,800 military and contractor jobs to Huntsville.
Griffin said the preparations for the AMC move started in May when the Pentagon's BRAC list was submitted to Congress.
"We wanted to be ahead in our planning if the relocation was approved," he said.
Under the BRAC law, the Pentagon can wait two years to begin relocating military units and organizations, but the moves must be completed by 2011.
The relocation won't interrupt the war effort or AMC's support of soldiers, Griffin said.
"I've said, since this began, that our No. 1 priority is the war and the soldier," Griffin said. "That's not going to change. We can move our headquarters without stopping any support to the soldier. That's not going to be a problem at all."
Griffin said there is a possibility AMC could begin moving here sooner than the two-year timetable, but that "depends on budget funding and direction from the Army," he said.
"We are ready to move whenever the Army says move."
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