07/19/08 — CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS –– A canon blast boomed through the quiet, preceding the slow, deliberate hoisting-up of the American and Pennsylvania state flags as servicemen and women in and out of uniform stood in solemn salute.

“You’re part of a historic event,” Maj. Gen. Jessica L. Wright, who is also a Pennsylvania National Guard adjutant general, told the crowd of more than 100 soldiers and civilians during Friday’s dedication ceremony for the Guard’s newly-built, $19.5 million Cambridge Springs Readiness Center and Field Maintenance Shop on Center Street Extension.

The new facility houses the Guard’s 1st Battalion, 112th Infantry Regiment, 56th Stryker Brigade, 28th Infantry Division. A rapid deployment force, units from Meadville, Erie and Corry are part of the new brigade centered around the Stryker, the Army’s latest combat vehicle.

The brigade, which consists of about 700 soldiers, is one of a total of six units that recently received Pentagon orders to deploy to Iraq early next year.

In coming months, Wright said, the new facility will serve as a go-to point for those soldiers’ families to get important news, correspondence and support. “Because of the global War on Terror,” she said, “we will have tearful good-byes and joyous reunions such as we have not seen since World War II.”

Such statements had a straight-to-the-heart impact for Spencer F. Wurst, a retired Army colonel who trained with the 1-112th during mobilizations in World War II and Korea and served as a combat paratrooper in Normandy, Holland and France. “I feel a lot of emotions,” the Clymer, N.Y., man said, sitting in the audience with his hands resting on a cane. “I thought by going through two mobilizations (in World War II and Korea), this one wouldn’t be necessary. I’m sorry it has to be.”

But if it has to be, officials and Guard personnel said, the Cambridge Springs facility is the right type of place for making sure soldiers are prepared. The center — which will replace outdated armories in Erie, Corry and Meadville — will have about 35 to 40 permanent jobs; and upward of 400 National Guard troops from around the region will be training at the center on weekends, according to Guard officials.

“It’s a nice facility,” said Staff Sgt. Stephen Welch. “We have all-around bigger classrooms,” and “we’ll be able to have more hands-on (training) with our equipment. Everything’s a lot bigger here.”

Funded through the Pennsylvania Department of General Services, construction of the roughly 73,000-square-foot readiness center and a roughly 21,000-square-foot maintenance shop started in early 2007 on about 10 of the 50 acres of state-owned land near the State Correctional Institution at Cambridge Springs, a women’s prison.

The $13.3 million readiness center will house the brigade Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Company B and Detachment 1/Company C. It contains an assembly hall, family support center, physical fitness room, recruiting office, classrooms, a medical suite, weapons vaults, locker rooms, a dining area, a battalion operations center and parking.

The field maintenance shop features three general maintenance bays, two heavy equipment bays with a 15-ton crane, a welding bay, a warm-up bay, a loading ramp, a fuel-dispensing station, an exterior wash bay, a loading ramp, fuel vehicle containment shelters, petroleum storage and a parking area for more than 80 military vehicles.

Overall, local officials and business owners have said they expect the facility to be a positive addition to the area, as Guard members will be in the community and spending money at area businesses on a regular basis.

The Pennsylvania National Guard’s Meadville armory on Diamond Park likely will be sold with the opening of the new, regional facility, according to officials. The sale of the site, which must be pre-approved by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, isn’t expected to happen until at least 2009.

Along with an official ribbon-cutting and public tours of the facility, Friday’s event featured welcoming and closing statements from master of ceremonies 1-112th Lt. Col. Francis T. Flanagan and remarks from Wright, Sixth District Republican state Rep. Brad Roae, 50th District Republican state Sen. Robert D. Robbins and Third Congressional District Republican U.S. Rep. Phil English.



Ryan Smith can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at rsmith@meadvilletribune.com. Tribune reporter Keith Gushard contributed material for this report.



What’s a Stryker?

The 19-ton, eight-wheeled light-armored vehicles — which cost up to around $2 million each — have been heralded by many in the military as bridging the gap between light and heavy forces with high technology, stealth and protection from improvised explosive devices and other weaponry on the ground.

A Stryker Brigade Combat Team can be on the ground in any part of the world in 96 hours, according to Army officials. The vehicle comes in different versions for transportation, scouting, artillery, hospital and other uses.

The Pennsylvania National Guard is the only state guard to receive the cutting-edge vehicles.