The SAME Weekly Digest is a brief compendium of the goings on at SAME headquarters during the past week. The digest is posted each Friday and provides a concise debriefing on the week that was. To read past editions of the Weekly Digest, click here.

Wishing our nation a happy 233rd birthday! From the staff of the Society of American Military Engineers, have a fun and safe holiday weekend!

• Advance copies of the July-August edition of The Military Engineer magazine have arrived at Century House. Look for your copy in the mail sometime next week, and don’t forget to check out TME Online, complete with online exclusive articles, at www.themilitaryengineer.com. The newest edition focuses on Water Planning & Management, featuring articles contributed by representatives of the public and private sectors, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Air Force.
• Today concludes the SAME-hosted U.S. Air Force Academy Engineering & Construction Summer Camp, which began June 26 in Colorado Springs, Colo. The camp is one of three weeklong summer camps held by SAME each summer to provide high-schoolers a hands-on introduction to engineering and the military services. The next and final summer camp will be co-hosted by the U.S. Navy Seabees at Port Hueneme, Calif., July 19-25.
• Century House staff members are gearing up for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Infrastructure Systems Conference, which SAME will co-host in Cleveland, Ohio, the week of July 20. The conference features more than 20 technical tracks and numerous plenary sessions aimed at building national technical competency. ONLINE REGISTRATIONFOR THE ISC CLOSES TOMORROW, JULY 3! On-site registration will also be available.
• EVENTS: Online registration closes July 7 for the SAME LEED for DOD Projects Workshop scheduled for July 13 in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.; Registration is now open for the SAME/International Facility Management Association’s Facilities Management Workshop, to be held August 26-27 in Arlington, Va.

The SAME Weekly Digest is a brief compendium of the goings on at SAME headquarters during the past week. The digest is posted each Friday and provides a concise debriefing on the happenings of the week that was. To read past editions of the Weekly Digest, click here.

• SAME held its fifth annual Joint Engineer Senior NCO Symposium this week in Atlantic Beach and Camp Lejeune, N.C. The event is held each year to provide our NCO engineer corps an opportunity to gain greater knowledge of topics of concern and to network with their inter-service counterparts. Look for photos of the event next week.
• As mentioned in last week’s Weekly Digest, the SAME Sustainability Task Force held a conference call Wednesday. Topics covered in the call included net-zero energy initiatives, the meaning of sustainable communities as applied to military installations and alternative energy opportunities. To get involved in the task force or for more information, contact Tad McCall, task force chair, at mccall_tad@bah.com. 
• EVENTS UPCOMING: Registration closes July 3 for the SAME-hosted USACE Infrastructure Systems Conference, to be held July 20-24 in Cleveland, Ohio; Registration closes July 7 for the next installment of the wildly popular but never overhyped SAME LEED for DOD Projects Workshop, scheduled for July 13 in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

• Retired Air Force General Among Metro Victims. The Washington Post reported last night the names of the nine victims of Monday’s fatal collision on the D.C. Metro subway system. Among the dead are Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley Jr., USAF (Ret.), former Commander of the District of Columbia National Guard, and his wife, Ann. Both were 62. The DOD Web site has this article on Gen. Wherley’s life. Needless to say the thoughts and prayers of the SAME family are with the families of the victims. (”General, Wife Among Metro Casualties,” DefenseLink, 6/24/09)
• The Soundtrack of War. On a lighter note, The New Yorker published this short article on the significance of music among soldiers at war. Described is a new book titled “Sound Targets: American Soldiers and Music in the Iraq War,” which according to the article, examines the role of music in military recruiting, combat, interrogations and morale. (”Blam,” The New Yorker, 6/29/09)
• The Deepest Lab in the World. The AP reports on this week’s groundbreaking of a new underground laboratory in South Dakota, which at more than 4,000 feet below the surface is the world’s deepest. The lab, which is being constructed in what remains of an abandoned gold mine, will allow scientists to escape cosmic rays that could interfere with their efforts to research mysterious particles known as dark matter, which could comprise up to a quarter of the mass of the universe. Far out. (”Work Begins on World’s Deepest Underground Lab,” Associated Press, 6/23/09)
• Geothermal Technology Challenged. The New York Times has this lengthy feature on a new, potentially controversial geothermal energy project in Northern California. The project utilizes technology similar to that of a project halted a few years ago in Switzerland after the deep subterranean drilling required to tap the energy source caused ongoing temblors throughout the region. (”Deep in Bedrock, Clean Energy and Quake Fears,” New York Times, 6/23/09)