Blount Island takes on bigger role in Marine logistics

When the Marines took ownership of half of Blount Island about five years ago, the Jacksonville site wasn't much to look at.

"It was a dump, literally," said Jim Hooks, who was operations officer and later commander of the base. Piles of tires lay around the island, as did thousands of tons of concrete and even some cars up on blocks.

Now, $55 million in construction and repairs later, the place looks like an actual Marine base. But the command headquartered there says that's just the beginning.

The military budget submission now being considered by Congress includes about $75 million for six projects that would increase how quickly and efficiently work can be done at the base, including more container storage and expanded painting and washing facilities.

The projects, part of the master plan put together after the government used eminent domain to seize the 100-acre site in 2005, have been moved ahead of schedule as the work done by the Blount Island Command has become more important to the Marines.

"It's just driving home the point of just how vital the Blount Island Command is to the Marine Corps," said Col. Steve Peters, commanding officer of both the base and the logistics command that calls it home.

The idea that forms the heart of Blount Island - known as maritime prepositioning - was still in a sort of a testing phase when the command was formed in the 1980s.

On land leased from then-owner Gate Petroleum, the Marines on the island became a key cog in a system of ships loaded with everything a Marine Expeditionary Battalion needs to go to war for 30 days.

Blount Island got the nod to become home to the only base of the sort after planners looking for a site ran into a guy in a hotel bar - shades of Tuns Tavern, where the Marine Corps was born - who suggested the site.

The vessels loaded there are sent to float at key points in the ocean, ready to rush to hot spots as needed. Each contains thousands of items, from bullets and bandages to tanks and trucks.

"You could go to the desert," said Hooks, now retired from the military and working as deputy director of the base. "If you can find a water source, even if its the ocean, you have 30 days of sustainment."

The idea of having such supplies at the ready proved its worth in the 1991 invasion of Iraq, leading the Marines to increase the number of ships in the program.

Prepositioning ships has supplied every mission Marines have embarked on since Desert Storm, including operations in the Philippines, Haiti and Southeast Asia. Many of the 16 vessels now used had their hulls emptied as Marines hit the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When those ships are unloaded, the startup rate on the machinery has been 98.6 percent or higher, Hooks said, compared to about 80 percent on items stored at home bases.

"We feel pretty good - we feel damn good - about the quality of work here," he said.

Almost 250 government employees and active-duty military are assisted by about 1,000 civilian contractors in loading and unloading the ships and taking care of the equipment.

Every ship shows up every 36 months, where every item aboard is taken off. While the Navy takes the vessel into dry dock, contractors with the Blount Island Command go over every piece of machinery, cleaning, fixing and sometimes updating it all, including swapping out things like armored vehicles as the Marines change the type they use.

Serving as an important link in the Marine logistical chain, the base naturally began to take on other jobs that required equipment processing, moving and repairing.

This included sending a team over to Iraq to move out the "zillions" of Humvees left on military bases - particularly those that weren't up-armored - a command that grew to three locations in Iraq and two in Afghanistan.

This month workers at Blount Island are now dealing with the last of the gear the Marines used in Iraq. While some items were shipped directly to Afghanistan, others came home to be repaired before redeployment or to be shipped to bases in the United States.

With the growing importance of the base, the Marines have worked to turn it from simply a command to a full-fledged base. Among the projects done in the past five years, for example, was the installation of gates that prevent access to the base by land or sea.

Many of the projects being requested in fiscal-year 2011 budget help to rationalize the base configuration. Right now, containers, tracked vehicles and wheeled vehicles dance around each other, crossing through what Hooks called "the most dangerous intersection in the city."

The projects also are designed to increase efficiency, doubling the number of bays in the washrack, for example, and allowing larger pieces of equipment to fit in the paint and blast facility.

"It brings us to the modern age," said Kim Weisenburger, head of the command's Installation Management Office.

timothy.gibbons@jacksonville.com,

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