FORT IRWIN, Calif.- Since the 51st Translator Interpreter Company was stood up at the National Training Center and Fort Irwin in October 2008, its Soldiers have served the nation all around the globe as they have provided translator and interpreter services as a force multiplier for the Armed Forces.
However, until May 13, the Soldiers didn't have a place to call home at Fort Irwin as they were moved from modular facilities to other units' barracks facilities but were never together in one place.
With the opening of their new $9 million barracks facility, the TICO Soldiers now have state-of-the-art living quarters complete with a kitchen and living area in each two-person room.
"Our Soldiers have had to move two or three times, and it's great they finally have a place to call their own," said TICO first sergeant 1st Sgt. Jody Huskey.
TICO Soldiers are often deployed to different theaters around the globe and until the opening of the new barracks facility they haven't had a place they knew they'd be coming back to, Huskey said.
Ninety-five percent of the 88 rooms in the barracks are already slotted to be occupied from Soldiers from the company, he said.
"This is really a great day for the company, and it's something our Soldiers deserve," Huskey said.
Spc. Afrees Dikranian , who helped cut the ribbon on the new facility, the barracks mean he'll no longer have to worry about moving again.
"I've moved two or three times since I've been here, so it's nice to have a great place like this to live," Dikranian said.
"It is one more step on a continuous effort, a continuous journey to make Fort Irwin a community of choice," Fort Irwin Garrison commander Col. Jim Chevallier said. "A place known not only as a world-class training center, but a world-class place to live, a world-class place to serve, to deploy from and raise a family."
This is a significant step because it rare to be cutting the ribbon on a brand new barracks facility at Fort Irwin and the National Training Center, Chevallier said.
"It's a focus that we've had for about 18 months to two years and we will continue to focus on the single Soldier quality of life that we can help foster here at Fort Irwin," he said. "Facilities-wise we've been able to renovate two barracks this year. We've got a new barracks. We've got the unaccompanied houses for staff sergeant and above all just about opened."
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