NJ megabase ready for prime time - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

NJ megabase ready for prime time

The nation’s only triservice joint base became fully operational Thursday, completing a process that began with the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment legislation.

McGuire Air Force Base, Fort Dix and Naval Engineering Station Lakehurst, which together occupy 42,000 acres in New Jersey, are now known as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Officials at the installation have been working since November 2005 to bring Air Force, Army and Navy operations under one umbrella in a move expected to streamline operations and save money.

Property and funding have been transferred to Air Force control, and Air Force Col. Gina Grosso has taken over as base commander. The Air Force will be responsible for logistical operations such as food and transportation. Grosso said it was difficult to pull together three organizations with different procedures and job descriptions, but now that the organizational structure has been determined, she’s eager to see the results.

“It’s just a real opportunity, to have a job where it’s never been done before and there’s no playbook,” Grosso said. “It’s really exciting to have an opportunity to get this right from the start.”

McGuire’s fleet of aircraft increases by 57 percent with the addition of 37 Army, Navy and Marine planes. An additional 500 Army civilians and 500 Navy civilians now become Air Force employees, Grosso said.

The three bases last month merged their family services into a single organization, and on Oct. 1 the security squadron at McGuire joined forces with Defense Department police at Lakehurst and Dix.

The services will continue to perform the same functions: training and mobilization for the Army, logistics and transport for the Air Force, and designing and testing aircraft components for the Navy.

“We’ve been in the business of doing this since 1917,” said Fort Dix spokesman Dave Moore. “Pretty much this validates our mission.”

Related reading

* Army Times: New name, same mission for 92-year-old Fort Dix

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