FORT BENNING, Ga. (Oct. 23, 2009) -- Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey Jr. got an aerial peek Tuesday at the massive expansion effort under way at Fort Benning, Ga., for the Maneuver Center of Excellence which officially stood up with a ceremony Thursday.

On a helicopter tour, Casey received a progress report while reviewing the new housing construction and Base Realignment and Closure projects tied to the 2011 arrival of the Armor Center and School from Fort Knox, Ky.

"There are places that a year ago were just woods," he said. "It was very helpful for me to get past the PowerPoint slides and actually see the buildings growing out of the forest."

Casey said the Infantry-Armor merger fits into the Army doctrine that's been rewritten in the eight years since Sept. 11. Leaders want formations to "simultaneously apply offense, defense and stability" concepts, he said.

"We call that full-spectrum operation (and) all Army maneuver formations will operate like that," Casey said. "And we have to do that across the spectrum, from conventional war all the way to peacetime operations. This will help us come together and it will be much better, because all of our maneuver forces are going to maneuver similarly, particularly in the kinds of operations that we're conducting in Iraq and Afghanistan."

As part of his visit, he toured the National Infantry Museum for the first time and re-enlisted five Soldiers including two Purple Heart recipients at the Follow Me Statue in front of the museum.

"It gives me great pleasure to re-enlist these Soldiers, and keep their families on the team," he said. "As an Infantryman, coming back to Fort Benning is like coming home. Every time I fly around the post, or drive around this post, there are great memories," he said.

Casey discussed Army recruiting benchmarks, efforts to increase time between deployments and the impending unification of the Infantry and Armor centers at Fort Benning.

During a visit with basic trainees earlier at an urban operations facility, Casey mingled with new Soldiers from C Company, 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment.

"You can't look these young men in the eye and not feel proud about our country," he said.

During Casey's stop at Fort Benning's $100-million National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center at Patriot Park, he got a look at "The Last 100 Yards," the museum's signature exhibit which depicts lifelike scenes from eight wars.

"This is probably the most moving museum I've been in than any time in the last five years," he said. "It's a wonderful tribute to the Infantry."

Casey said he's still stirred by the interaction of young and old Soldiers alike.

"We stand on the shoulders of our predecessors," he said. "What you see is, we're such a lucky country because generation after generation of American men and women believe so much in the values and ideals this country stands for that they've been willing to die for it, and that's what the Army is all about."