JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (Sept. 9, 2013) -- Members of the Mission and Installation Contracting Command and guests celebrated the opening of a new training facility with a ribbon cutting ceremony Sept. 9 at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.
Building 607A, now designated 600, will serve as a multipurpose acquisition training facility for the MICC and other members of the contracting community on JBSA-Fort Sam Houston. It consists of classrooms as well as conference and work spaces.
"Opening the MICC acquisition training facility is in line with our duty to develop adaptive, innovative and decisive contracting and non-contracting professionals across the command," said Brig. Gen. Kirk Vollmecke, the MICC commanding general, during the ceremony. "In today's environment, we must be first to be recognized by leaders across the Army for our talent, skill and professional dedication. Furthering education and training for our Soldiers and Army civilians is essential to building and sustaining our workforce."
The new training facility is designed to meet Defense Acquisition University classroom requirements. It affords the contracting command here the capability to host DAU courses both locally and regionally while saving temporary duty time and costs. Funded by the Army Contracting Command, renovations to the 2,914-square-foot facility got under way at the end of 2011 and cost $2.6 million.
The Long Barracks was originally constructed in from 1885 to 1887. The number of Soldiers at Fort Sam Houston soon outgrew the space and a need for additional facilities to serve as mess halls and full latrines were added soon after 1900.
Building 607A served as a mess hall for Soldiers living in Building 607 until the Korean War. In the 1950s, it was used as the shipping section for recruits assessed into the Army during the war. Following the war, the building filled various administrative uses before eventually sitting vacant.
Efforts by the Society for the Preservation of Historic Fort Sam Houston in 1984 saved the Long Barracks and buildings behind it from demolition. The renovation of the Long Barracks for the MICC soon yielded a need for training space, and Building 607A was selected as the most sound of the remaining structures to renovate.
"The acquisition training that will be conducted here for our Soldiers and Army civilians will greatly improve our capability to provide world-class contracting support to our Soldiers and families," Vollmecke said.
The MICC is responsible for providing contracting support for the warfighter throughout Army commands, installations and activities located throughout the continental United States and Puerto Rico. Through August, the command has executed more than 31,000 contract actions worth more than $3.8 billion across the Army, including more than $1.4 billion to small businesses. The command has also managed more than 742,000 Government Purchase Card Program transactions this fiscal year valued at an additional $826 million.
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