The recently-completed Army Logistics University at Fort Lee, Va., is a 45-acre college campus that trains officers, senior enlisted and DOD civilians in the theories and practical applications of logistics, through the use of technology, a two-story library and a full satellite array to communicate with individuals who are forward deployed. The project management team responsible for the construction of the campus will be recognized in December by McGraw-Hill’s Mid-Atlantic Construction magazine.

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.

• The SAME Marketing & Communications Department has finalized the 2010 SAME marketing kit. The new kit contains detailed information on our planned events for next year as well as event sponsorship and exhibition opportunities. Additionally, the kit provides specifications on advertising rates for The Military Engineer magazine. To download a PDF of the 2010 marketing kit, click here.
• SAME hosted another iteration of the Contractors on the Battlefield Panel, held in conjunction with the Joint Engineer Operations Course, which provides just-in-time training for deploying engineers across all branches of the U.S. armed forces. Held Wednesday at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., the panel, optional for course attendees, addressed the important relationship between the private and public sectors in the AOR, and featured the perspectives four private-sector contractors who have recently spent time in the battlefield. SAME also hosted a reception and dinner following the panel. To read an interview with three of the panelists, check out the March-April 2009 issue of The Military Engineer.
• Online registration is now open for the 2010 Peninsula Engineer Conference (PEC), to be held Feb. 4-6, 2009, in Seoul, South Korea. Themed “Transforming Korea,” the conference will feature keynote speakers giving the latest updates on the transformation of the U.S. Korea Command and the Korea Relocation Plan (KRP). For the U.S. and Republic of Korea military, the 2010 PEC will offer two days of briefings on military engineer operations, construction and facilities management. For more information, visit the event page, or to register, click here!

According to an independent report released today, despite the U.S. armed forces achieving their most successful recruiting year in decades in FY09, roughly three-quarters of current potential recruits are ineligible for service. As reported by The Washington Post, the report, published by D.C.-based nonprofit Mission: Readiness, the most common reasons for individuals being disqualified from service are obesity and lack of education. Additionally, factors such as criminal records and drug use are exacerbating what many observers see as a potentially crippling challenge to U.S. national defense.

“We are very concerned,” said Maj. Gen. James A. Kelley, USA (Ret.) a member of Mission: Readiness, in the Post report. “We do have the greatest military in the world—we have the greatest planes, the greatest tanks, the greatest ships—but the key goal is having great people. Right now, we’re attracting very highly-qualified folks, but that could change over time.”

According to the report, “Ready, Willing and Unable to Serve,” nearly one in three young Americans is too overweight to join the military, one in 10 has a disqualifying criminal record, and one in four lacks a high-school diploma, which, though not strictly rendering a recruit ineligible for service, does prove problematic for individuals attempting to pass the military’s entrance exam.

“The United States military must continue to insist on rigorous eligibility standards because it needs competent, healthy and educated individuals to staff the world’s most professional and technologically advanced military,” reads the report’s introduction. “The best aircraft, ships and satellite-guided weaponry alone will not be enough to keep our country strong. America’s armed forces also need highly capable, law-abiding, and physically fit recruits.”

Click here to read the full report.