USMC Building Quarters for Wounded Warrior Battalion – West
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Douglas E. Barnhart, Inc. in San Diego, CA won a $23 million firm-fixed-price task order under a multiple award construction contract to design and build a 100-room Wounded Warrior Bachelor Enlisted Quarters (BEQ) at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The facility will include modified sleeping rooms with private bathrooms, specifically modified for its Wounded Warrior Battalion – West occupants. Community and service areas are also placed within the quarters in order to provide one-stop services to the extent that this is possible, and this task order contains an option that could raise the contract’s value to $24 million. Work will be performed in Oceanside, CA and is expected to be complete by March 2010. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest in San Diego, CA received 4 proposals for this task order (N62473-06-D-1059, #0003).
Other task orders under this contract have not involved the USMC Wounded Warrior Regiment, which stood up in April 2007 (see video). During their own treatment and recoveries, 24th MEU Lt. Colonel Tim Maxwell and Master Sgt. Ken Barnes realized that a place where wounded could recover together and help each other heal was a missing element in the traditional treatment approach. A support group grew into a barracks, which was renamed “Maxwell Hall” in November 2005. As the program expanded, it evolved into the current regiment, with an established battalion on the east coast and a newer battalion on the West Coast at Camp Pendleton. The goal is a comprehensive program that tracks and supports ill or injured Marines/Sailors, providing assistance to them and their families until they have been returned to duty, or have been medically discharged and have successfully reestablished in civilian life. Efforts include cutting edge medical treatments and rehabilitation, to personal and family counseling, to assistance with the military bureaucracy. Master Sgt. Barnes:
“It allows them to share ideas about healing… he’s not alone, he’s not the only guy in the world that this is happening to… We’re not just saying, ‘We helped you up to this point.’ We’re not leaving it at that. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Always a Marine.”
