Tuesday, January 13, 2009

MILITARY CONTRACTS January 13, 2009

NAVY

Alderman Building Company, Inc.*, Jacksonville, N.C., LifeCycle Construction Services, Inc.*, Washington, D.C., Military & Federal Construction Co., Inc.*, Jacksonville, N.C., Robra Construction, Inc.*, Virginia Beach, Va., T.H.R. Enterprises*, Norfolk, Va., TJC Engineering, Inc.*, Prospect, Ky., are each being awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity multiple award design-build construction contract for general building type projects at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Base Cherry Point. The maximum dollar value for the base period for all six contracts combined is $20,000,000. The total contract amount for all six contracts combined, including the base period and four option years, is $100,000,000. Alderman Building Co., Inc., is being awarded task order #0001 at $153,434 for interior/exterior repairs to Building AS-4159 at Marine Corps Air Station New River. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by Jan. 2010. All work on this contract will be performed in Jacksonville and Cherry Point, N.C. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of Jan. 2014. Contract funds for task order #0001 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 18 proposals received. These six contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (contract numbers N40085-09-D-5321/5322/5323/5324/5325/5326).

ITZ Construction Incorporated*, Jacksonville, N.C., Military Environmental & Construction Corp.*, Jacksonville, N.C., Southern Glass and Mirror of Eastern North Carolina Incorporated*, Swansboro, N.C., T.E. Davis Construction Co.*, Jacksonville, N.C., Tesoro Corp., Virginia Beach, Va., Virtexco Corp., Norfolk, Va., are each being awarded an indefinite delivery indefinite-quantity multiple award design-build construction contract for general building type projects at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Base Cherry Point. The maximum dollar value, for the base period for all six contracts combined is $20,000,000. The total contract amount for all six contracts combined, including the base period and four option years, is $100,000,000. Military Environmental and Construction Corp., is being awarded task order #0001 at $101,000 for the renovation of Building M415 at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Work for this task order is expected to be completed by Jul. 2009. All work on this contract will be performed in Jacksonville and Cherry Point, N.C. The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months, with an expected completion date of Jan. 2014. Contract funds for task order #0001 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 22 proposals received. These six contractors may compete for task orders under the terms and conditions of the awarded contract. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (contract numbers N40085-09-D-5327/5328/5329/5330/5331/5332).

Progeny Systems Corp.,* Manassas, Va., is being awarded a $10,065,194 cost plus fixed fee contract to provide the submarine community with the technology to support mission reconstruction, onboard training and network level distance support. This technology will be applied to advance processing applications and sensor systems to streamline functional capabilities and reduce man power requirements. Engineering services required to complete this work include system level design, software/hardware development, systems engineering, integration, installation, and test of Submarine combat system related electronics during new construction and modernization periods. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $62,327,606. Work will be performed in Manassas, Va. and is expected to be completed by Jan. 2010. Contract funds in the amount of $388,521 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This effort is being awarded under a program for Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and is titled Topic No. N03-220 "Extensible After-Action Review, Acquisition, Retrieval and Storage System". This procurement will use the prototype products, processes and methodologies developed by Progeny Systems Corporation under the SBIR Phase I and II efforts. The Naval Sea Systems Command is the contracting activity (N00024-09-C-6207).

Correction: Contract awarded Jan. 9, 2009 to Walker Power Systems, Inc., Phoenix, Ariz., for $17,287,442 should have had the contract number of M67854-09-D-6005.

ARMY

Raytheon Co., Bedford, Mass., was awarded on Jan. 9, 2009, a $75,509,000 firm fixed price contract for Patriot missile system radar upgrade kits. Work will be performed in Andover, Mass., and El Paso, Texas, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One bid was solicited on Aug. 26, 2008. Aviation and Missile Command Contracting Center, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W31P4Q-09-G-0001).

L-3 Communications Aerospace LLC, Madison, Miss., was awarded on Jan. 9, 2009, a $38,090,260 time and material contract for logistics support in the areas of aircraft workers and paints. Work will be performed in Corpus Christi Army Depot and is expected to be completed by Jan. 8, 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Three bids were solicited on Nov. 1, 2007, and one bid was received. Corpus Chrisi Army Depot, Corpus Christi, Texas, is the contracting activity (GS-10F-0328N).

General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc., Sterling heights, Mich., was awarded on Jan. 9, 2009, a $14,300,000 cost plus fixed fee contract for system technical support for the Abrams tank program. Work will be performed in Sterling Heights, Mich., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. One bid was solicited on Jun. 8, 2006. TACOM, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-07-C-0046).

AIR FORCE

The Air Force is awarding an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to Williams International Corp., of Walled Lake Michigan for 45,000,000. This contact focuses mainly on Phase III of the VAATE Program. At this time, $94,942 has been obligated. Det 1 AFRL/PKPB, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio is the contracting activity (FA8650-09-D-2924).

The Air Force is awarding a Cost Plus Fixed Fee with Performance Incentives to Raytheon Co., of Tucson, Ariz. for $16,298,964. This contract will provide a High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile Targeting Systems Software Upgrade Program. At this time, $4,512,500 has been obligated. 693 ARSS/PK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity (FA8675-09-C-0004).

Pace Portrait Unveiled During Pentagon Ceremony

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

Jan. 13, 2009 - It's a plain, unadorned painting -- just a general officer in service-dress alphas looking straight at you. But the portrait of retired Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace now hanging in the Pentagon captures the measure of the man. The portrait hangs on the E-Ring in the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff corridor. Pace served as the 16th chairman, and the painting joins those of all chairmen going back to General of the Army Omar N. Bradley.

Former Marine Peter E. Egeli painted the portrait.

"I didn't want a lot of distraction in it," Egeli said in a short interview. "The background is red. That signifies the wars we fought. I wanted the attention on the general."

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the current chairman, hosted the portrait-unveiling ceremony at the Pentagon auditorium today. He praised his predecessor – the first Marine to serve as chairman – for his leadership, his caring and his intellect.

"His leadership and caring for the men and women who serve live with him today," Mullen said. He called Pace a "Marine's Marine" and said the portrait recognizes a very special individual. The chairman also recognized Pace's wife, Lynne, for her contributions to the military and her advocacy of military families.

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England; retired Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, Pace's predecessor as chairman; retired Navy Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, the former vice chairman; Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen; and many serving officers of the Joint Staff and civilian leaders attended the unveiling.

Pace thanked all for attending, and he thanked Rumsfeld for appointing him as vice chairman and chairman.

"History will be written at the right time," Pace said to Rumsfeld. "The folks in this room wearing uniforms and the civilian leaders in this room are going to come out looking the way they should – as true patriots and heroes of our country."

Pace said in the 15 months since he retired he has had time to think about what went right and what didn't.

"I certainly made some wrong estimates. And I certainly made some recommendations that if I could take them back and change them, I would, given the knowledge of today," he said. "But I also know that given the exact same data, at the exact same time in history, I would give the exact same advice."

Pace said that all involved in the weighty decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan learned, and that the learning led to better advice. "I'm immensely proud of what has not happened because of the dialogue that has gone on among our senior civilian leaders and our senior military leaders," he said.

Pace spoke of the portrait and thanked Egeli "for treating me gently," but also spoke of the portrait that "is the canvas of my heart." He said it was an incredible privilege to serve.

"I miss it. I miss being able to reach out and touch folks in uniform," he said. "If I could find a way to serve the nation again, I would."

In the audience was Marine 1st Lt. Andrew Kinnard – a young man wounded in Iraq. "Some people mistakenly would say that Andrew lost his legs in combat. Wrong," Pace said. "Andrew gave his legs. He sacrificed his legs so that we might live in this incredible country."

Pace said one of the best aspects of retired life is being able to work with wounded warriors and the families of the fallen. "Andrew, to you – and to every other servicemember who has sacrificed for our country – thank you," Pace said.

Mullen noted the Paces' life of service, and quoted from Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon. "Life is mostly froth and bubble, two things stand like stone: Kindness in another's trouble, courage in your own," the chairman said.

"Thank you for your friendship, thanks for your service," Mullen added. "Thanks for being the leader you have been and the Marine you have been my entire life."

Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps Prepares for Inauguration

By Army Staff Sgt. Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service

Jan. 13, 2009 - The largest U.S. Army fife and drum corps ever assembled will take part in President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration Jan. 20. Nearly 60 fifers, buglers and drummers of the Army's Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps will march from the Capitol to the White House near the front of the inaugural parade procession. The group normally performs with around 25 musicians, 33 at most, for an event of this scale, said Army Sgt. Maj. Gregory J. Rock, the corps' senior enlisted member with more than 20 years in the unit.

Since mid-December, the corps has been rehearsing the difficulties of marching and staying in step in a larger-than-usual ensemble. Several times each week, often in rain and cold, the corps forms up to march from its headquarters building about a mile down Sheridan Avenue on Fort Myer, Va., said Rock, who's preparing for his sixth inaugural parade.

"The biggest challenge is making sure everybody is taking their steps at the exact same time as everybody else, making sure everyone's together in the troop, marching as one whole unit," the Leesburg, Va., native said.

The increased size of the performing ensemble is a coincidence, despite the magnitude of attention Obama's inauguration has drawn, Rock said. More of the corps's musicians are available to perform than usual, and the unit is taking advantage of its healthiness, he explained.

"This is the largest corps we've ever marched, and the reason is that we're always growing, trying new things and thinking outside the box," Rock said. "But this is the healthiest the corps has actually ever been, so we're using everybody we can."

Rock stressed that the inaugural parade is just another event for his busy musicians, who perform an average of 500 events each year. Each performance is conducted at the highest possible standard, regardless of the event's perceived importance, he said.

"The visibility [of a presidential inauguration], of course, is higher than anything else we do, but we treat all missions the same," he said. "We're going to pull out all stops, because we're all professionals, and we put 100 percent into all our performances."

Even the fact that they're participating in the inaugural parade of the first African-American president in American history doesn't faze them, he said.

"Everyone talks about this particular inauguration being history, but we look at all of the inaugurations as a huge part of history, because when and where else in the history of the world do you have this much power transitioning peacefully, ever?" he said. "So if you think about that in the large scheme of things, you're making history every time."

Army Staff Sgt. Alexander Borisov, a fifer who's participating in his first inaugural parade, echoed his sergeant major's sentiment that the corps strives for perfection at every performance. The opportunity to welcome a new president and honor the new commander in chief on his inauguration day is significant no matter who he is, the 22-year-old St. Louis native said.

"Political boundaries go away when he assumes commander in chief," Borisov said. "So in that respect, it doesn't matter who it would be. I would've been thrilled [with] this being my first inaugural or my tenth. I would've loved it just as much."

Since the corps's creation in 1960 as part of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment at Fort Myer, the Army's Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps has participated in every presidential inauguration since John F. Kennedy's in 1961.

The corps represents one of the military's oldest traditions, dating back to Gen. George Washington's Continental Army. The men and women will be easy to point out during the inaugural parade: they dress in uniforms patterned after the field musicians of the 1st American Regiment, wearing black tricornered hats, powdered wigs, and red colonial-style coats.

"To be a fifer in the fife and drum corps truly is living tradition," Borisov said. "To actually be in this group, one of the Army's premier bands -- it's such an honor to know that I'm part of it. I'm living the tradition, and I'm escorting the president as he's being inaugurated."

Defense Department, VA Host Suicide Prevention Conference

By Michael Tolzmann
Special to American Forces Press Service

Jan. 13, 2009 - More than 750 people from the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and private enterprise -- including social workers, chaplains, researchers, and family members – are gathered here this week for a suicide-prevention conference. Scientists, clinicians and specialists are working to eliminate the stigma that's often tied to seeking mental health care in the military, Army Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Loree K. Sutton, the Army's highest ranking psychiatrist, said during remarks on the conference's opening day yesterday.

"The secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs have both emphasized [that] seeking help is a sign of profound courage and strength," Sutton said. "Truly, psychological and spiritual health are just as important for readiness as one's physical health."

Sutton, special assistant to the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs and director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, said the soldier ethos of never leaving a fallen comrade behind applies to those with wounds that aren't visible. She stressed the importance of reaching out and intervening early for those who seem to need help.

The four-day conference features workshops and training that focus on suicide-related topics that include crisis negotiation of a suicide in progress, resilience in suicide prevention, overall suicide-prevention strategies and mental health strategic initiatives.

Yesterday's keynote address drew a large, attentive audience who listened to a soldier, husband and father who has experienced the effects of suicide through the loss of his own son.

Army Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, commander of Division West at Fort Carson, Colo., has spoken openly about mental health, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2003, his 21-year old son, Kevin, a top ROTC cadet, hanged himself after battling depression. Graham told the audience his son feared the repercussions disclosing his mental health issues might have for his Army career. Graham's eldest son, Jeff, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004. He said he and his wife have chosen to continue to serve "in memory of our sons."

"Both of my sons died fighting different battles," he said.
"I can think of few subjects more important that this one," the general said, stressing the need to talk about the challenges and stigma associated with mental health and thoughts of suicide.

"Leaders, be compassionate," he said. "Soldiers, it's OK to get help. Untreated depression, PTSD or TBI deserve attention. Encourage those who are afflicted to seek help with no embarrassment."

Suicide can afflict anyone, regardless of rank, stature or wealth, Graham noted.

He emphasized the "ACE" program for soldiers – Ask your buddy, Care for your buddy, Escort your buddy – and said the Defense Department and VA have a national, toll-free suicide hotline at 800-273-TALK (8255).

"Don't be afraid to intervene and save a life," he said. "Just being with someone can make a difference."

(Michael Tolzmann works at the Joint Hometown News Service in the San Antonio office of the Defense Media Activity.)

Mullen Urges Emphasis on 'Soft Power' in Foreign Policy

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

Jan. 13, 2009 - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff advocated a "whole-of-government approach" to foreign policy in a speech here last night, urging more funding for nonmilitary departments' roles overseas. "I believe we should be more willing to break this cycle, and say when armed forces may not always be the best choice to take the lead," Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told a Nixon Center audience.

Mullen said civilian agencies representing American "soft power" -- the Departments of State, Justice, Commerce and Agriculture -- deserve more money and support than they currently receive, and should play an enlarged role internationally.

The chairman's remarks align with those made by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who has warned against a "creeping militarization" of U.S. foreign policy. In a speech in June, the secretary said diplomacy and development should lead American efforts abroad.

"Broadly speaking, when it comes to America's engagement with the rest of the world, it is important that the military is -- and is clearly seen to be -- in a supporting role to civilian agencies," Gates said.

Mullen echoed Gates, saying that the U.S. military should be "just as bold in providing options when they don't involve our participation or our leadership." He added that this notion should apply even when alternative options are unpopular, or when they demand resources be transferred from the military.

The Defense Department's fiscal 2009 budget was about $650 billion, compared to the State Department's reported budget of about $11.5 billion.

"As an equal partner in government, I want to be able to transfer resources to my other partners when they need them," Mullen said. "And we need to reallocate roles and resources in a way that places our military as an equal among many in government, as an enabler, a true partner."

During his international travels, Mullen said, the message is clear that there is a strong desire to work with the United States.

"Most of the world wants a stronger relationship, and a deeper mutual understanding with the United States," he said. "We have a great opportunity right now to seize this moment in history, by enabling all aspects of our power and influence, as a force for peace."

The chairman said the military has effectively served the role of ambassador when called upon to do so.

"But our most effective ambassadors of peace in the future will not be those who wear uniforms, or bear arms," he said. "They will be our civilians."

Senate Committee Slates Confirmation Hearings for Defense Nominees

By Army Staff Sgt. Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service

Jan. 13, 2009 - Four people nominated to serve in the Defense Department in President-elect Barack Obama's administration will appear before the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Jan. 15 for confirmation hearings, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates appreciates the expediency with which the committee arranged the hearings, Morrell told Pentagon reporters.

The nominees are:

-- Bill Lynn, senior vice president for Raytheon Co., as deputy defense secretary;

-- Michele Flournoy, who co-founded the Center for a New American Security and helped design the 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review for the Clinton administration, as undersecretary of defense for policy;

-- Robert Hale, executive director of the American Society of Military Comptrollers who served as an assistant Air Force secretary during the Clinton administration, as the Pentagon's chief financial officer and comptroller; and

-- Jeh Charles Johnson, general counsel of the Air Force during the Clinton administration, as general counsel.

"The secretary emerged from interviews with all four of those individuals, impressed with their professional credentials, as well as their personal character," Morrell said. "He is grateful they have agreed to serve the nation and urges the Senate to confirm them as soon as possible after the inauguration, so as to help him ensure a smooth transfer of power within the department as we continue to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Gates is scheduled to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Armed Services Committee Jan. 27 to testify on the challenges facing the Defense Department as Obama takes office, Morrell said.