"State-of-the-art" training upgrades aimed at better preparing troops for combat.
CAMP GRAYLING -- With more American soldiers set to head off to Afghanistan, many troops will now be better prepared before heading into combat.
$70 million in federal funds are being used to upgrade Camp Grayling in Crawford County.
The construction includes upgrades to the infrastructure and improvements to barracks, classrooms, and training fields. Its focus is on providing state-of-the-art training for troops.
"The new construction we have going on here at Camp Grayling better reflects what the troops will see when they're deployed overseas today. The war fight is much different than it was a few decades ago," said Maj. Dawn Dancer of the Michigan Army National Guard. "Today's war fight is more in an urban area and so you're going to see that type of structure so our soldiers here can train and prepare for that."
Thousands of soldiers come through Camp Grayling each year. That's in addition to foreign soldiers, and other law enforcement agencies that utilize the camp. Camp Grayling is the largest military installation east of the Mississippi River and the nation's largest National Guard training site.
"There aren't too many places that have the capabilities that we do," said Col. Ronald Latuszek, commander of Camp Grayling. "Camp Grayling is 147,000 square acres, and soldiers can come here and fire any kind of weapons system they have."
Aside from the training for soldiers, the work is a welcoming sight for local construction companies who have been facing a sluggish economy this year. With a milder winter so far it's also allowed crews to stay on the job later in the year.
"It's been very good for us, we needed a boost, the construction industry as a whole needed a boost," said Dennis Fedorinchik, president of Hallmark Construction. The Traverse City based construction firm was awarded a $17 million contract for their part on the job. "All that's going on here at Camp Grayling has been very important to the construction industry and the state of Michigan."
Fedorinchik says from their contract alone, more than $8 million was awarded to sub-contractors in the Grand Traverse County region with the balance of their funds being awarded to sub-contractors from across the state. Dancer, with the Michigan Army National Guard, says all work is being performed by Michigan based companies.
There are about 40 different projects on-going currently. The majority of them are expected to be wrapped up at varied points next year.
