The Kaiserslautern Military Community Center project, overseen by the 435th Civil Engineer Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany, recently had a 15-ton dome lowered into place, completing one more segment of the 840,000 square feet of hotel, shops, base exchange, restaurants, and movie theater, scheduled to open in January 2007. The 350-bed hotel actually plans take its first guest in June 2006. Brig. Gen. Danny Gardner, US Air Forces in Europe Mission Support director, calls it a “little piece of the United States” to improve quality of life, but he adds that it is not intended to replace the benefit of exploring new places and trying native foods and services.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
