After months of preparations and prior notices, major construction will finally begin next month on Fort Leonard Wood.
Speaking at Tuesday afternoon’s meeting of the Fort Leonard Wood Regional Commerce and Growth Association, the post’s garrison commander, Col. John Megnia, acknowledged that post officials have spent much more time talking about construction than actually breaking ground. That will change very quickly, he said.
“Before the end of September, we will be starting on our child development center for school-age children; they will be just to the right of the current facility they have, in the ball field that is never used,” Megnia said.
The next project to begin construction will be the new Fort Leonard Wood post chapel on what is now a physical training field just south of Wallace Pool.
Megnia said there are some projects already underway.
“Right in front of Wallace Pool, we are in the process of building a miniature golf course, and then the new starbase barracks is ongoing off of Indiana,” Megnia said.
Some other construction projects are out of sight for most Fort Leonard Wood personnel unless they live outside the South Gate, he said. Those include a number of projects south of the main cantonment area in the vicinity of Forney Field.
“We will be having some major construction on ranges 7 and 8, which are basic rifle marksmanship; we will be taking two ranges and converting them to four so we can get more utilization out of it,” Megnia said. “Instead of having two companies out there, now we can have four companies of about 200 people, depending on the type of organization.”
That should improve efficiency of basic training as well as other qualification courses, Megnia said.
People are coming as well as construction, Megnia said, and some units have already arrived — sort of.
One example is the 13th Military Police Company, which was transferred from the Italian city of Vincennes to Fort Leonard Wood.
“That new company that was supposed to come from Italy is here, but really all that came from Italy is the guidon,” Megnia said. “We’ve planted the flag and now we’ve got to start filling the unit with people.”
Other units coming to Fort Leonard Wood include the 512th Military Police Company, the 92nd Military Police Battalion headquarters which will come from Fort Benning, and a third military police company that’s transferring to Fort Leonard Wood next year.
Those units, as well as the 5th Engineer Battalion, 94th Engineer Brigade, and a currently deployed military police company, will be subject to a new Forces Command brigade headquarters at Fort Leonard Wood, Megnia said.
“So that’s going to be a fairly significant unit?” asked Waynesville City Administrator Bruce Harrill.
That’s correct, Megnia said.
“It will be a total of about 3,000 soldiers, but some of them are already here, so the actual growth in total number of bodies will be about 1200 personnel, just soldiers, but that doesn’t include family members,” Megnia said.
Megnia noted that other major improvements in the life of soldiers at Fort Leonard Wood include a decision by the new housing contractor to provide yard service to residents who live on post.
“One of the more visible amenities is the new company, Balfour Beatty, is cutting everybody’s yard unless you have a fenced-in yard,” Megnia said. “So there are a lot of very happy people now.”
Referring to a ceremony earlier in the day, Megnia thanked a representative of the Sellers-Sexton car dealership for that company’s role in maintaining the new hydrogen vans being used for commuting between Fort Leonard Wood and Rolla.
“It’s pretty neat that Sellers-Sexton will be doing the maintenance on those vehicles; this is a wonderful example of community cooperation,” Megnia said. “It’s really amazing how far the Army has come in trying to manage its energy use.”
Megnia said many non-tactical vehicles at Fort Leonard Wood are already able to handle the new E-85 ethanol fuel blend and other efforts are being made to promote fuel conservation.
“Personally, I was very surprised how ‘green’ Fort Leonard Wood is,” Megnia said.