JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas –
The Air Force continued to usher in a new age in housing facilities for basic military training recruits during ceremonies here Wednesday.
The 37th Training Wing held a ribbon cutting and re-dedication for Airman Training Complex No. 2, the second dormitory completed in a $900 million construction project started four years ago. ATC No. 1 and Dining/Classroom Facility No. 1 opened in December 2012.
ATC No. 2 becomes the new home for the 321st Training Squadron. In a re-dedication ceremony following the ribbon cutting, the name "Hackney Training Complex" was transferred from the squadron's old Recruit Housing and Training building to ATC No. 2.
"This is a really exciting day," said Col. Vincent Fisher, 37th Training Wing vice commander. "Trainees will train in a wonderful facility. It has ease of access, and the dorms and services they have within this facility is just awesome.
"It means a lot to the wing for this facility to come on board."
The new dormitories are mission-specific facilities designed to house, educate, train and feed 1,200 recruits at any given time. The ATCs and DFCs will replace RH & Ts scattered around Lackland that were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The three facilities now on line are part of the BMT east campus. Two more ATCs and another DCF are under construction to complete the campus. ATC No. 3 and DCF No. 2 are scheduled to be finished in mid-2014; ATC No. 4 is projected for January 2015 completion. Each ATC is a four-story structure with a running track, drill pad, laundry rooms and a war skills area.
The second phase of construction, a duplicate west campus, is scheduled to begin in fiscal year 2016 and will be located across Carswell Avenue from the east campus. The two campuses will be connected by an overhead troop walk already under construction.
A new BMT reception center and parking area are also under construction adjacent to 737th Training Group headquarters building and the east campus as part of an overall plan to centralize BMT facilities.
During the re-dedication ceremony, ATC No. 2 was named as the Hackney Training Complex to honor Chief Master Sgt. Duane D. Hackney. Hackney was awarded the Air Force Cross in 1967 for extraordinary heroism as an airman second class pararescueman.
According to online sources, Hackney was the youngest and only the second enlisted man to receive the Air Force Cross in addition to being the only living recipient at the time. Over his 22-year military career, he received 28 decorations for valor in combat and more than 70 other awards and decorations.
A survivor of over 200 rescue missions in Vietnam, Hackney died of a heart attack in 1993 at the age of 46 at his home in Pennsylvania.
"I never knew Duane Hackney the military man, he was always just dad," said his son, Jason Hackney, who represented the family at the re-dedication. "Even though he was a family man, I still had some of the basic military training with him in my childhood. He was training me from being a boy into a man.
"I'm glad the building has his name," he added. "I hope it inspires people."