Potomac News Online | Military Bases Have Big Economic Impact

Employing a large number of military personnel and civilian workers, Quantico Marine Corps Base and Fort Belvoir have a considerable impact on the area’s economy.

Both military installations offer a wide range of facilities.

QUANTICO

A combined total of 15,000 military personnel and civilian employees work here.

The 60,000-acre base houses a Marine Corps Warfighting Lab that tests experimental tactics and equipment for amphibious warfare.

The base is also home to the Marine Combat Development Center, the Air-Ground Training and Education Center, Wargaming and Combat Simulation Division and the Marine Corps Research Center.

The Presidential helicopter squadron, HMX-1, is based in Quantico as well as the Manpower and Reserve Affairs Department, the Marine Corps Recruiting Command and the Marine Security Guard Battalion.

The Marine Corps University, which includes the School of Advanced Warfighting, the Amphibious Warfare School and the Officer Candidates School, is also located there.

All newly commissioned lieutenants in the Marine Corps receive training at the Basic School, located on Quantico’s Camp Barrett.

For Marines and their families, Quantico has a commissary and large, modern Marine Corps Exchange complex with a florist, beautician, barber and tailor.

An Ambulatory Care Clinic on Barnette Avenue offers personnel, their dependents and retirees a state-of-the-art facility in which to receive their health care.

The base also has a golf course called Medal of Honor.

The Marine Corps Heritage Museum is closed until 2005.

For more information on Quantico, call the public affairs office at (703)784-2741.

FORT BELVOIR

Fort Belvoir, an Army installation in the Mount Vernon area of eastern Fairfax County, is a strategic support center for more than 100 tenant organizations with administrative offices. The post also has a support center that includes a post exchange and commissary for eligible military personnel and their families.

Fort Belvoir houses the Defense Logistics Agency Headquarters, the Criminal Investigation Division Headquarters and the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command and the Information Systems Software Center.

The post also has an Army airfield, a hospital, three golf courses and two wildlife refuges.

It is home to the J.S. Mosby U.S. Army Reserve Center and also houses the Army Management Staff College, the Defense Systems Management College and the Defense Mapping School.

For more Fort Belvoir Information, residents can call public affairs at (703) 805-5001.