Marine Corps News, news from Iraq - Marine Corps Times

2 sites eyed for new wounded warrior complex

But at Camp Pendleton, one question looms: Where should the $30 million project be built?

Marine officials are weighing two possible sites at the sprawling West Coast base: the grounds of the Naval Hospital, near the existing Wounded Warrior barracks in the 26 Area, or the Mainside area of the base, where the majority of headquarters units, exchanges and other amenities are located.

Establishment of the Wounded Warrior battalions and regiment has been one of the commandant’s top priorities. The military construction project is to include a new 200-bed barracks designed specifically for wounded Marines and sailors to recover, and built along with a headquarters facility for the Wounded Warrior Battalion-West. Such facilities usually include ramps, wider doors, and rooms and bathrooms that can accommodate wheelchairs.

A similar complex, Wounded Warrior Battalion-East, is planned at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Both battalions fall under the Wounded Warrior Regiment, based at Quantico, Va.

The distance between the proposed West Coast sites — a winding, roughly three-mile drive — isn’t a long ride at this 198-square-mile base. But each site would offer some different advantages over the other.

Regimental officials prefer the creation of a campus-like complex that helps in recuperation and has barracks close to hospital and medical care facilities, according to a Dec. 31 message, MarAdmin 764/07. But Camp Pendleton base officials want to build the new barracks in Mainside, where it also could be used as a temporary lodging facility if some of the beds weren’t being used by wounded warriors.

Both sides were expected to meet Jan. 7 with Marine Corps installations and logistics officials to find some middle ground for the project, according to the message which was posted by mistake on the Corps’ online MarAdmin board.

“This wasn’t for public knowledge. It was put out by mistake,” said Capt. Leticia Reyes, a spokeswoman in Quantico, on Jan. 3. “We are literally at the discussion stages.”

A park-like environment

The existing Wounded Warrior barracks sits in the Naval Hospital’s tree-lined grounds next to Lake O’Neill, a reservoir lake and popular recreational site nestled in the base’s eastern hills. The area is reached by a road off Vandergrift Boulevard, the main thoroughfare across the base’s more-populated south side.

The park-like environment, several miles from the hubbub of Mainside, might fit what the Wounded Warrior Regiment envisions as “a campus-styled complex that will aid in the rehabilitation and recovery process,” according to the message. The regiment “believes that the entire project should be designed specifically for the wounded, ill and injured. This facility should not be simply a modified barracks being utilized by wounded warriors.”

The regiment wants to build the complex, which would include a full-sized Fisher House and Transition Resource Center, in an area that’s close to the hospital and “provides a restive rehabilitative environment conducive to recovery,” it stated.

The base’s Mainside area is home to the main exchange area, pizza and fast-food restaurants, base library, theater, bowling alley, fitness center and sports complex, and several community services and organizations, including the Joint Reception Center, main chapel and Ward Lodging Facility that wounded warriors may use. It’s also home to several command headquarters, including Camp Pendleton base, Marine Corps Installations-West, 1st Marine Division and 1st Marine Logistics Group.

Camp Pendleton base officials are recommending that new barracks be constructed in Mainside so wounded warriors would have easier access to other services and amenities, and to allow the facility to be used as temporary lodging “when not being fully utilized by the wounded, ill and injured,” according to the message.