Messages
from your AFE Chapter 1 President
Good morning,
We have an opportunity
for 25 AFE members to tour Battle Station 21 at Great Lakes
Naval Base. The date is December 10th at 12:00 noon. If you’re
interested in this tour please let me know ASAP. I was just
informed that they need the names by Friday. I will let you
know if we have reached our limit and no longer have space
available. I wish there was room for everyone I’m sure we
will have more then 25 interested. I will see if there might
be future opportunities for us to tour there again. I will
send out the details on parking soon. I have included some
interesting information on Battle Station 21.
Thank you,
Linda C. Ramsey, CPMM
Association for Facilities Engineering
President Chapter 1
847-731-1118
Engineer234@comcast.net
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War Games
Mar 1, 2007 12:00
PM, By Robert Cashill
The most intriguing
themed project to open in some time is one you will never
have a chance to experience — that is, unless you join the
US Navy. In the theme parks world, the hairsbreadth entertainment
involves safely fictional, and fanciful, life-and-death situations;
at Battle Stations 21, an $82.5 million installation at the
Navy's only boot camp, the Great Lakes Naval Station, the
simulated life-and-death situations are grippingly real, as
recruits grapple with the kinds of scenarios they are likely
to face once their training is complete.
Located 30 miles
north of Chicago and housed in a 157,000-sq.-ft. facility,
Battle Stations 21 takes the concept of a training simulator
to a whole other level. Previously, recruits were put through
their paces on low-tech simulations; once they enter “Pier
8” on Battle Stations 21's southern exterior, they begin a
12-hour period of intensive skills testing aboard the USS
Trayer, a 210' replica of a guided-missile destroyer that
floats in a seawater and diesel fuel-scented moat filled with
100,000 gallons of water. The 17 tests the recruits undergo
(four divisions, 88 recruits to a division, can use the facility
at a time) range from routine matters to full-blown 9/11-era
crises, complete with ship-shaking effects, bursts of fire,
and screams from ultra-realistic “injured” dummies equipped
with triggered MP3 players. The twists and outcomes are cunningly
designed to outwit the multimedia-savvy recruits.
Assisting the Navy
in its pursuit of absolute realism were the same talents contributing
to theme parks and projects worldwide, deployed in a fascinatingly
new way that makes a facility that is otherwise off-limits
to civilians worth a look. Construction on Battle Stations
21, which started final testing in February, began in October
2005 after a lengthy conceptual gestation. The design team
was put in place by Sheila Sheridan, senior project manager
of McHugh Construction and Simulation, a division of Chicago's
James McHugh Construction Co., and a veteran of three prior
Great Lakes installations (and Chicago's Goodman Theatre and
Notebaert Nature Museum, among others).
“This project was
incredibly hard to coordinate because we had 14 different
design companies from nine different states, from California
to New Jersey, Oregon to Florida. We used all methods of communication
from VTC conferences to teleconferences, ftp sites, and face-to-face
meetings in a central location,” Sheridan recalls. “The biggest
challenge was that we had to design a building around a story
based on specific training objectives. Any time we made changes
to that design, we needed to ensure the training objectives
were maintained, the timing was consistent, and that we did
not change the storyline.”
Battle Stations
21 takes the concept of a training simulator to a whole other
level.
First I would like
to thank each and every one of you for your participation
in meetings. This is your Chapter and we are here to serve
you.
I have exciting
news about our Chapter that I would like to share with you.
We are currently in process of several exciting changes. We
are revitalizing Chapter 1 and we need your input.
This week I signed
a contract to reestablish our afechicago.org website. This
is imperative for us to move forward. This will not only allow
you to access all current information, but it will also allow
for automatic electronic messaging to our members and for
payment of meetings to be handled through the website.
Another exciting
development in the Chapter is an advisory board. We are in
process of recruiting a combination of past AFE board members
and Facilities professionals to help guide us. We are excited
about our changes and we want to reach out to everyone to
help move us in the best possible direction.
We are also evaluating
the education piece to our meetings. We understand that’s
an area we are lacking in and we are addressing this. Our
goal will be to bring a training piece to our tours. We are
also now able to provide you with CEU’s for training that
meets the qualifications. We want our monthly meetings to
be more valuable to you.
Which leads me
to the most important question; what can we do to serve you?
We want to give you the information that you need to help
run your facility as efficiently as possible. If there is
an education piece that you need, or a tour of a particular
facility type or maybe you would like to share your facility
with us then please let me know. We will do our best to accommodate
you.
If you haven’t
been to a meeting lately then please try to attend one soon.
Be a part of these exciting changes that are starting to take
place. Get involved. Give us your input. There are several
sub committees currently being formed for particular events.
Some of them will only meet once or twice prior to the event.
It’s a great way to get to know other members. Send me an
email or give me a call and I can find something that fits
your schedule.
Here are just a
few of our upcoming events; Lutheran General Hospital tour
on April 30th, May 20th fishing, June 23rd Gear Head Challenge,
July 24th Golf and October College of DuPage.
I see exciting
changes in our near future and with your help and ideas we
can make Chapter 1 the first place everyone in our community
will look for their facilities needs.
Thank you,
Linda C. Ramsey,
CPMM
Association for Facilities Engineering
President Chapter 1
847-731-1118
Engineer234@comcast.net
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