LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, TEXAS –
The Air Force is planning to spend nearly $900 million on Lackland AFB to totally replace the basic military training campus.
The current 1,000-man recruit housing and training facilities are a maintenance nightmare and are quickly approaching the end of their useful life due to the 24-hour heavy use by the basic trainees.
These facilities were built in the late-1960s and early-1970s to replace the World War II-era military open bay dorms.
The 37th Civil Engineer Squadron and the 737th Training Group have developed a phasing plan to replace the sleeping quarters, kitchen, dining areas, training facilities, squadron offices, running tracks, drill pads and war skills areas used by basic training during the next eight years.
The BMT campus replacement program is in the preparatory phase of the program.
Bldg. 7065 is currently being renovated to house many of the organizations that will be displaced by the new campus footprint. Occupants of these displaced facilities will be moving during the spring and summer of this year.
The massive construction effort begins in fiscal year 2009 with the construction of the first Airmen Training Complex.
The new ATC will be a 1,200-person dormitory facility to house the basic trainees. This project will also include running tracks, drill pads, war skills area and utility infrastructure to support the entire BMT campus.
The design of the prototype ATC has already started.
The second ATC will be constructed during the next phase, fiscal year 2010, and will also include the first kitchen/dining/classroom facility needed to feed and train the recruits.
The total campus replacement program will include eight ATCs and associated training areas, four dining/classroom facilities, and a new BMT Reception Center located at the corner of Carswell Avenue and Truemper Street.
Future recruits will begin living/training in some of the first completed facilities in 2011.
(Courtesy of the 37th CES)