Industry Day held for Army relocation project

By Capt. Kurt E. Van Slooten, 1st Signal Brigade PAOMarch 24, 2014

Lt. Col. Mollie Pearson explained PEO vision for the construction project
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Nathan E. Acree Jr. explains the purpose of Industry Day
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Col. Richard J. Turner explains in further detail the Yongsan Relocation Project and Land Partnership Plan
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Lt. Col. Eddie Galarza-Gonzalez lead tour of completed facilities communication infrastructure areas
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USAG Humphreys - U.S. Army Program Executive Office, Enterprise Information Systems and Rock Island Contracting Command hosted representatives from companies bidding to build the communications infrastructure for the Army Corps of Engineers Far East District's largest construction project since the Panama Canal.

The companies that attended Industry Day, an informational brief and tour included: AT&T, Avaya, BAE Systems, Blackbox, EPS, General Dynamics, LGS, Northrop Grumman, SAIC and Siemens; all hoping to get a better idea of the scope of the project they hoped to acquire for their company.

Lt. Col. Mollie Pearson, product manager for the power projection enablers section of PEO Enterprise Information Systems, explained their vision for the information systems portion of the construction project.

"We want to deliver a standardized global infrastructure that is scalable, accessible, flexible and defensible," said Pearson. "We need to enable streamlined access to the Army's applications, data and enterprise services to the warfighter."

A Soldier that learns the systems and processes for data applications in Europe should be able to come to Korea and have the same access to the applications here, said Pearson. Their number one goal in the Pacific, she said, it to enable the warfighter with emerging information technology and information systems.

Nathan E. Acree Jr., contracting officer for the Information Technology Division of U.S. Army Contracting Command - Rock Island, explained that Industry Day is for information and planning purposes for industry partners so they can gain a better idea of the design and scope of the Yongsan Relocation Project and Land Partnership Plan. Under YRP/LPP the majority of U.S. Army forces currently in Areas I and II, which extend from the Demilitarized Zone to Seoul, will relocate south to two hubs at USAG Humphreys and USAG Daegu.

Acree provided further details for contracting the different stages of the project and requirements for the contracts when awarded.

Col. Richard J. Turner, U.S. Chairman, Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence Joint Working Group and Chief, Task Force Mercury, introduced his co-chair ROK Army Col. Hwang Ho-hyeon, from the ROK Ministry of National Defense U.S. Base Relocation Office. Hwang made sure he instilled in the attendees the importance of the YRP/LPP project, thanked them for attending Industry Day and said that he looks forward to working with them on the project in the future.

Turner went into further detail regarding the YRP and LPP are and how they are being funded by the ROK and U.S. governments. He explained that funding for the construction of facilities for YRP, moving Soldiers out of Seoul/ Area II, is coming from the ROK government, and that the funding for construction of facilities to move Soldiers from the Army posts north of Seoul/ Area I, is coming from the U.S. government.

However, Turner said, there is no way to implement the installation of the C4I infrastructure in a divided fashion. So to ensure that the design and installation of the C4I systems necessary for command and control of forces of this magnitude is provided, C4I has become a combined effort.

To further impress on the representatives the scale of the project, Turner told them there will be more than 550 new buildings, each with a C4I component determined by the facility's purpose. The facilities, he said range from the largest high school in the Department of Defense Education Activity inventory, to barracks and support facilities for the influx of Soldiers, to the new 3-star headquarters for Eighth Army.

The group was given a tour of some of the newly finished facilities, information systems and housing areas that will be cookie-cutter copies of facilities under construction or still in the planning phase. Some of the facilities they saw were a battalion headquarters, an Army family housing unit, a Soldier barracks facility, a dining facility and a fire station.

Prior to departing to provide the information they gleaned from the Industry Day to their company's leaders, the attendees were given a chance to ask any final questions were thanked by the PEO and AAC representatives for their attendance and wished well on their bids for the construction contracts.