Air Force
EA Engineering, Science and Technology, Inc., of Hunt Valley, Md., is being awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for a maximum of $3 billion. This action will provide professional architect-engineer services to perform Title I, Title II, and other architect-engineer services to administer, coordinate, and technically support environmental, military construction, military family housing, and facility sustainment, restoration, and modernization programs of interest to the government worldwide. The ordering period for this contract shall be 60 months. At this time $2,500 (Task order 0001 for each prime contract) has been obligated. AFCEE/ACV, Brooks City-Base, Texas, is the contracting activity (FA8903-08-D-8791).
The Air Force is modifying a firm fixed price contract for $7,278,700 with Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Navigation Systems Division, of Woodland Hills, Calif. This action will provide for one hundred thirty EGI Production Units for the USAF F-16. The Embedded GPS/INS (EGI) Units is a non-development item (NDI) being procured to meet the navigation requirements for tri-service and Foreign military Sales (FMS) platforms. This is a modification to exercise options for the aforementioned efforts. At this time all funds have been obligated. 647 AESS/PK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8626-06-C-2066 P00036).
Navy
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $659,237,888 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-04-C-0014) to exercise the option for the procurement of 13 F/A-18Fs and 3 E/A-18G aircraft for the U.S. Navy. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. (28.7 percent); El Segundo, Calif. (25 percent); Goleta, Calif. (8.6 percent); Clearwater, Fla. (2.3 percent); Greenlawn, N.Y. (2.1 percent); Burnsville, Minn. (2.1 percent); Johnson City, N.Y. (2.1 percent); Brooklyn Heights, Ohio (2 percent); Vandalia, Ohio (2 percent); Grand Rapids, Mich. (2 percent); South Bend, Ind. (2 percent); Mesa, Ariz. (1.8 percent); Fort Worth, Texas (1.8 percent); and at various locations across the United States (17.5 percent), and is expected to be completed in January 2012. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Bay Electric Co., Inc., Newport News, Va., is being awarded $9,726,275 for firm-fixed price Task Order #0003 under a previously awarded multiple award construction contract (N40085-06-D-6006) for design and construction of a truck company maintenance/operations complex at Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune. Construction will include drive-through equipment maintenance bays, a battery charging room, tool storage, parts storage, administrative space, classroom space, showers and lockers and weapons storage/cleaning area. Also includes technical operating manuals, anti-terrorism/force protection features, and necessary environmental mitigation. The total contract amount is not to exceed $11,125,045. Work will be performed in Jacksonville, N.C., and is expected to be completed by February 2010. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Three proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity.
Science Applications International Corp., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $9,068,457 modification to previously awarded contract (N00178-04-C-2004) to exercise an option for continuing engineering support for engineering expertise to support Research and Development (R&D), Total Ship System Engineering, and Combat System Engineering (CSE) initiatives for the introduction of advanced Technology into advanced combat systems, and for the modernization of current combat systems for surface ship combatants. Work will be performed in Dahlgren, Va. (90 percent), and Virginia Beach, Va. (10 percent) and is expected to be completed by August 2009. Contract funds in the amount of $542,553 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, Dahlgren, Va., is the contracting activity.
L-3 Services, Inc., San Leandro, Calif., is being awarded a $7,438,904 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the design, development, integration and production of a form, fit and function, environmentally sealed, state-of-the-art Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Pulser and its associated control system. Work will be performed in San Leandro, Calif., and is expected to be completed in August 2010. Contract funds in the amount of $1,250,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured under an electronic request for proposals, with two offers received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity (N00421-08-C-0070).
Innovative Technical Solutions, Inc., Walnut Creek, Calif. is being awarded $6,273,910 for firm-fixed price Task Order #0003 under a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity environmental multiple award contract (N62473-08-D-8813) for transportation and removal of contaminated soil at Hunters Point Shipyard. Work will be performed in San Francisco, Calif., and is expected to be completed by July 2009. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Three proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, Calif., is the contracting activity.
Management Consulting Inc., Virginia Beach, Va., is being awarded a $5,588,665 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity with firm-fixed-price provisions contract for Supply Chain Management (SCM) services and material utilizing a Third Party Logistics (3PL) provider in support of Naval Facility Command (NAVFAC) Midwest Public Works Department (PWD), Crane, Ind. This contract contains four one-year options, which if exercised, bring the total estimated value of the contract to $29,677,961. Work will be performed at Crane, Ind., and work is expected to be completed by August 2009. The contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This offer was awarded competitively through Navy Electronic Commerce Online and Federal Business Opportunities website, with one offer received. The Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk is the contracting activity (N00189-08-D-M002).
Army
Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, Stratford, Conn., was awarded on August 1, 2008, a $285,997,538 Firm Fixed Price, contract for procurement of UH-60Ls, to include technical support, technical publication and Ground Station Radios for Royal Saudi Land Forces. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by September 30, 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was 1 bid solicited on October 4, 2000. US Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (DAAH23-02-C-0006).
S.M. Wilson, St. Louis, Mo., was awarded on August 1, 2008, a $22,400,000.00 Firm Fixed Price-Construction, contract for construction, repair and alteration of real property at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Work will be performed in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and is expected to be completed by December 30, 2009. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Eight bids were received on January 18, 2008. Corps of Engineers Kansas City District, Kansas City, Mo., is the contracting activity (W912DQ-08-C-0057).
General Dynamics Land Systems, Sterling Heights, Mich., was awarded on August 1, 2008, a $613,532,017.90 Firm Fixed Price, contract for Award Program Year One increment 2 of multi-year contract for Abrams M1A2 system enhancement program Version 2 upgrade vehicles. Work will be performed in Lima, Ohio and across the continental United States and is expected to be completed by October 31, 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was one bid solicited on October 5, 2007, and one bid was received. TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-06-G-0006).
Robertson Aviation, L.L.C., Tempe, Ariz., was awarded on July 31, 2008, a $5,292,008.00 Firm Fixed Price, contract for Internal Auxiliary Fuel Systems. Work will be performed in Tempe, Ariz. and is expected to be completed by December 31, 2011. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There was one solicited on February 26, 2008, and 1 bid was received. Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-08-C-0152).
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Compensation Panel Recommends TRICARE Changes
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
Aug. 5, 2008 - The Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation has recommended fee changes to Tricare, the Military's health care system. The recommendations would mostly affect retirees and will not affect active-duty servicemembers or their dependents, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Jan D. "Denny" Eakle, the director of the study, said in a Pentagon briefing today.
"Retiree fees ought to relate to how much the plan is worth," she said. "The ... higher-value plans should have higher premiums associated with them."
The panel believes fees need to be fair to all retired Military members, Eakle said. "They ought to reflect how much income an individual has, so that if they make more money and are therefore better able to pay for a system, they should do so," she said.
One problem is the fee structure for Tricare has not changed in 13 years. "When Tricare started out in 1995, Military members, retirees were charged $230 per individual, $460 per family," she said. "Today in 2008, they're charged $230 per individual, $460 per family."
In 1995, servicemembers paid 27 percent of their health care cost. Today that share is less than 12 percent.
Over-65 Military retirees -- those using the "Tricare for Life" program -- have been paying the Medicare Part B program fee of 25 percent, but this is due to rise. "Essentially what this says to you is that we are asking our older retirees, who are in fact the least likely to hold jobs and therefore have the lowest incomes, to pay the most for their system," Eakle said.
But Tricare for Life is a much more generous program than Tricare Prime. "We believe we need to get some parity between our older and our younger retirees," Eakle said.
The panel wants to redress some of this imbalance. "We believe that the under-65 retirees should begin paying 40 percent of the Medicare Part B premium using the same fee structure that is laid on by the Medicare system," Eakle said, adding that this should bring the system into a semblance of parity.
"In addition, we believe that the under-65 retirees ... who elect to use Tricare Standard and Extra need to pay a small fee for that," she said. "And we would suggest to the department that that fee be set at 15 percent of the Medicare Part B. We think the family rate should be set at double the individual rate and that the premium increase needs to be phased in over four years."
Other recommendations include using the Medicare deductible rate -- $135 per person in 2008 -- for Tricare. The panel also recommended to the department that all co-pays and co-insurance for any preventative service be provided at no cost to all members and retirees who have access to Tricare.
The final panel recommendation to DoD is to establish an open enrollment period for Tricare, Eakle said.
American Forces Press Service
Aug. 5, 2008 - The Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation has recommended fee changes to Tricare, the Military's health care system. The recommendations would mostly affect retirees and will not affect active-duty servicemembers or their dependents, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Jan D. "Denny" Eakle, the director of the study, said in a Pentagon briefing today.
"Retiree fees ought to relate to how much the plan is worth," she said. "The ... higher-value plans should have higher premiums associated with them."
The panel believes fees need to be fair to all retired Military members, Eakle said. "They ought to reflect how much income an individual has, so that if they make more money and are therefore better able to pay for a system, they should do so," she said.
One problem is the fee structure for Tricare has not changed in 13 years. "When Tricare started out in 1995, Military members, retirees were charged $230 per individual, $460 per family," she said. "Today in 2008, they're charged $230 per individual, $460 per family."
In 1995, servicemembers paid 27 percent of their health care cost. Today that share is less than 12 percent.
Over-65 Military retirees -- those using the "Tricare for Life" program -- have been paying the Medicare Part B program fee of 25 percent, but this is due to rise. "Essentially what this says to you is that we are asking our older retirees, who are in fact the least likely to hold jobs and therefore have the lowest incomes, to pay the most for their system," Eakle said.
But Tricare for Life is a much more generous program than Tricare Prime. "We believe we need to get some parity between our older and our younger retirees," Eakle said.
The panel wants to redress some of this imbalance. "We believe that the under-65 retirees should begin paying 40 percent of the Medicare Part B premium using the same fee structure that is laid on by the Medicare system," Eakle said, adding that this should bring the system into a semblance of parity.
"In addition, we believe that the under-65 retirees ... who elect to use Tricare Standard and Extra need to pay a small fee for that," she said. "And we would suggest to the department that that fee be set at 15 percent of the Medicare Part B. We think the family rate should be set at double the individual rate and that the premium increase needs to be phased in over four years."
Other recommendations include using the Medicare deductible rate -- $135 per person in 2008 -- for Tricare. The panel also recommended to the department that all co-pays and co-insurance for any preventative service be provided at no cost to all members and retirees who have access to Tricare.
The final panel recommendation to DoD is to establish an open enrollment period for Tricare, Eakle said.
Massachusetts Militia Soldier Was Olympic Pioneer
By Army Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
Special to American Forces Press Service
Aug. 5, 2008 - Imagine the Olympic Games without the specter of terrorists, tests for outlawed drugs or gold medals. That was the Olympics that a soldier who served in the Massachusetts militia experienced in Greece in 1896. Thomas Pelham Curtis was his name, and he was an Olympic pioneer in the sense that he competed in the first games of the modern Olympic era. He won the 110-meter hurdles for the United States.
His time of 17.6 seconds on a soft track is by far the slowest winning time in that event's Olympic history. But Curtis, who had studied electrical engineering, played football and ran track at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was just as proud to be an Olympian in Athens as will the 10,500 who will march and compete in Beijing during the 29th Summer Games beginning Aug. 8.
"There was a romance and a novelty connected with them that is hard to describe," stated Curtis, who wrote extensively about his experiences. He also took many photos of those games with a camera that his parents gave him.
He was born in San Francisco, and he was 23 when he competed, according to Leonid Kondratiuk, the state historian for the Massachusetts National Guard. Curtis attended the U.S. Military Academy for five months in 1891, and he was a private in the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia's 1st Corps of Cadets from March 1892 to March 1895, Kondratiuk reported. The 1st Corps was the elite infantry battalion in Boston, he added.
Curtis later served as a captain in the Quartermaster Corps with the Massachusetts State Guard from October 1918 to June 1919 while the Massachusetts National Guard was mobilized for World War I.
Others who have served in the National Guard -- including African-Americans Brig. Gen. Edward Gourdin and Col. Willie Davenport -- also savored the Olympic experience.
Gourdin, a track star at Harvard, got the silver medal in the long jump during the 1924 Summer Games in Paris, the same year he earned his Harvard law degree. His accomplishments included being the first man to long jump 25 feet, becoming the first African-American to be promoted to general in the Massachusetts Guard when he retired in 1959, and becoming the Bay State's first African-American superior court justice.
Davenport, from Alabama, competed in five Olympics and was one of just eight Americans to compete in Summer and Winter Games. The man nicknamed "Breeze" won the gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles in 1968 at Mexico City and earned the bronze in the same event eight years later in Montreal when he was 33.
He made his final Olympic appearance as a member of the U.S. bobsled team during the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y. Davenport was honored as one of this country's 100 Golden Olympians before the 1996 Centennial Olympics in Atlanta. He was 59 when he died in June 2002.
The Olympics were ingrained into the international sports culture by the time Gourdin and Davenport came along. In fact, the Winter Games were first held in 1924 – the same year that Gourdin long jumped in Paris.
But they were very much a novelty when Thomas Pelham Curtis traveled to Athens to compete in 1896. The ancient games had last been held in A.D. 393 before the Roman emperor Theodosius ended them.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator, persuaded 13 countries to send athletes to Athens for the first modern Olympics to promote interest in education and culture and to foster better international understanding through the love of athletics, according to The World Almanac.
The U.S. Olympic track and field trials did not exist. Curtis and other members of the Boston Athletic Association decided to compete in the inaugural games at the last minute, according to an MIT News Office report in 1996. The Boston group joined a team from Princeton and sailed for Greece less than two weeks before the games began.
One report states that the team trained in secret at Pennington, N.J., before sailing. The MIT account stated that the athletes trained for an hour a day on the steamship Fulda's rear deck and that they practiced during a stop in Gibraltar. They arrived in Athens the day before the games began, April 5, a Sunday, according to the MIT story.
Curtis qualified for the finals in the 100-meter and 110-meter hurdles. But his trainer saved him for the hurdles, and Curtis edged Great Britain's Grantley Goulding for the victory. That, Curtis acknowledged later, was the race "I had come especially to run."
He made many other observations.
"Athens presented a splendid appearance. It was a small city built of very white houses, with white streets, white sidewalks and white everything, and with that background the thousands upon thousands of flags of every color and kind showed out in striking contrast, making the city seem almost like a huge kaleidoscope.
"Eighty-two thousand people were seated [at the stadium] and thirty thousand more, for whom there was no room, were standing tier on tier on a hill that towered above one of the seats.
"During the week following the Games, our American team was involved in continuous fetes. We were shown about the country by the three Princes, took dinner with them, went to dances and cotillions at the American Minister's, Russian Minister's and elsewhere, and in our progress through the streets were greeted with cries of 'Nike, Nike' ['Victor, Victor']. Small shopkeepers insisted that we enter their stores and accept neckties, handkerchiefs, etc., for which they refused to accept payment, and which we were warned we should accept in order not to cause hurt feelings."
It was, indeed, a more innocent time for the Olympics in which this Massachusetts militia soldier competed.
The terrorists would not strike until 1972 in Munich. The use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs would not become an international issue until well into the 20th century. And the gold medals?
Curtis didn't get one. Gold medals were not given to Olympic champions until the St. Louis Games in 1904. The winners of the events during the 1896 Games, Curtis wrote, were presented an olive branch from the sacred grove of Olympus, a large silver medal, and a diploma printed in Greek.
(Army Master Sgt. Bob Haskell serves with the National Guard Bureau.)
Special to American Forces Press Service
Aug. 5, 2008 - Imagine the Olympic Games without the specter of terrorists, tests for outlawed drugs or gold medals. That was the Olympics that a soldier who served in the Massachusetts militia experienced in Greece in 1896. Thomas Pelham Curtis was his name, and he was an Olympic pioneer in the sense that he competed in the first games of the modern Olympic era. He won the 110-meter hurdles for the United States.
His time of 17.6 seconds on a soft track is by far the slowest winning time in that event's Olympic history. But Curtis, who had studied electrical engineering, played football and ran track at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was just as proud to be an Olympian in Athens as will the 10,500 who will march and compete in Beijing during the 29th Summer Games beginning Aug. 8.
"There was a romance and a novelty connected with them that is hard to describe," stated Curtis, who wrote extensively about his experiences. He also took many photos of those games with a camera that his parents gave him.
He was born in San Francisco, and he was 23 when he competed, according to Leonid Kondratiuk, the state historian for the Massachusetts National Guard. Curtis attended the U.S. Military Academy for five months in 1891, and he was a private in the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia's 1st Corps of Cadets from March 1892 to March 1895, Kondratiuk reported. The 1st Corps was the elite infantry battalion in Boston, he added.
Curtis later served as a captain in the Quartermaster Corps with the Massachusetts State Guard from October 1918 to June 1919 while the Massachusetts National Guard was mobilized for World War I.
Others who have served in the National Guard -- including African-Americans Brig. Gen. Edward Gourdin and Col. Willie Davenport -- also savored the Olympic experience.
Gourdin, a track star at Harvard, got the silver medal in the long jump during the 1924 Summer Games in Paris, the same year he earned his Harvard law degree. His accomplishments included being the first man to long jump 25 feet, becoming the first African-American to be promoted to general in the Massachusetts Guard when he retired in 1959, and becoming the Bay State's first African-American superior court justice.
Davenport, from Alabama, competed in five Olympics and was one of just eight Americans to compete in Summer and Winter Games. The man nicknamed "Breeze" won the gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles in 1968 at Mexico City and earned the bronze in the same event eight years later in Montreal when he was 33.
He made his final Olympic appearance as a member of the U.S. bobsled team during the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y. Davenport was honored as one of this country's 100 Golden Olympians before the 1996 Centennial Olympics in Atlanta. He was 59 when he died in June 2002.
The Olympics were ingrained into the international sports culture by the time Gourdin and Davenport came along. In fact, the Winter Games were first held in 1924 – the same year that Gourdin long jumped in Paris.
But they were very much a novelty when Thomas Pelham Curtis traveled to Athens to compete in 1896. The ancient games had last been held in A.D. 393 before the Roman emperor Theodosius ended them.
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator, persuaded 13 countries to send athletes to Athens for the first modern Olympics to promote interest in education and culture and to foster better international understanding through the love of athletics, according to The World Almanac.
The U.S. Olympic track and field trials did not exist. Curtis and other members of the Boston Athletic Association decided to compete in the inaugural games at the last minute, according to an MIT News Office report in 1996. The Boston group joined a team from Princeton and sailed for Greece less than two weeks before the games began.
One report states that the team trained in secret at Pennington, N.J., before sailing. The MIT account stated that the athletes trained for an hour a day on the steamship Fulda's rear deck and that they practiced during a stop in Gibraltar. They arrived in Athens the day before the games began, April 5, a Sunday, according to the MIT story.
Curtis qualified for the finals in the 100-meter and 110-meter hurdles. But his trainer saved him for the hurdles, and Curtis edged Great Britain's Grantley Goulding for the victory. That, Curtis acknowledged later, was the race "I had come especially to run."
He made many other observations.
"Athens presented a splendid appearance. It was a small city built of very white houses, with white streets, white sidewalks and white everything, and with that background the thousands upon thousands of flags of every color and kind showed out in striking contrast, making the city seem almost like a huge kaleidoscope.
"Eighty-two thousand people were seated [at the stadium] and thirty thousand more, for whom there was no room, were standing tier on tier on a hill that towered above one of the seats.
"During the week following the Games, our American team was involved in continuous fetes. We were shown about the country by the three Princes, took dinner with them, went to dances and cotillions at the American Minister's, Russian Minister's and elsewhere, and in our progress through the streets were greeted with cries of 'Nike, Nike' ['Victor, Victor']. Small shopkeepers insisted that we enter their stores and accept neckties, handkerchiefs, etc., for which they refused to accept payment, and which we were warned we should accept in order not to cause hurt feelings."
It was, indeed, a more innocent time for the Olympics in which this Massachusetts militia soldier competed.
The terrorists would not strike until 1972 in Munich. The use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs would not become an international issue until well into the 20th century. And the gold medals?
Curtis didn't get one. Gold medals were not given to Olympic champions until the St. Louis Games in 1904. The winners of the events during the 1896 Games, Curtis wrote, were presented an olive branch from the sacred grove of Olympus, a large silver medal, and a diploma printed in Greek.
(Army Master Sgt. Bob Haskell serves with the National Guard Bureau.)
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