Fort Monmouth

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Ft. Monmouth Garrison Shield
Ft. Monmouth Garrison Shield
CECOM Crest
CECOM Crest

Fort Monmouth is a United States Army post in Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, New Jersey, and about one mile from the Atlantic Ocean. The base covers nearly 1,126 acres of land, from the Shrewsbury River west to Route 35, called Main Post. A separate area (Camp Charles Wood) to the west includes base housing and a golf course. A Conrail line runs through its western portion and out to Naval Weapons Station Earle. The base is like a small town, including a post exchange, health center and other amentities. Until the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the base was open to the public to drive through; since that time, the base is closed to all but authorized personnel.

The base is home to several units of the U.S. Army Materiel Command that research and manage communications, computer and other technology, as well as an inter-service unit designed to coordinate communications, an academic preprepatory school, an ordinance disposal unit, a garrison services unit, an Army health clinic, and a Veterans Administation health clinic. Other agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency, have presences on the base.

The base was selected for closure by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission in 2005. Most Army functions and personnel are scheduled to be moved to Army facilities in Maryland and Ohio by 2011.

Signal Corps Time Capsule
Signal Corps Time Capsule

Contents

[edit] History

The original name of the installation was Camp Little Silver. It was renamed Camp Alfred Vail shortly after its establishment in 1917. The Chief Signal Officer authorized the purchase of Camp Vail in 1919. The Signal Corps School relocated to Camp Vail from Fort Leavenworth that year. The Signal Corps Board followed in 1924. In August 1925 the installation was granted permanent status and was renamed Fort Monmouth. It was named in honor of the soldiers of the American Revolutionary War who died in the Battle of Monmouth; aptly, it is also located in Monmouth County. The first permanent building was built in 1928. Other structures were built to house units the Army consolidated into Fort Monmouth.

In 1928, the first radio-equipped meteorological balloon reached the upper atmosphere, a forerunner of weather sounding techniques universally used today. In 1938, the first U.S. aircraft detection radar was developed here; this is the same radar that detected the oncoming Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor, but the warning it provided was discounted. In 1946, space communications was proved feasible when the Diana Radar was used to bounce electronic signals off the moon.

[edit] World War II

Additional property was purchased in 1941 for Camp Coles near Red Bank, Camp Charles Wood in Tinton Falls, and Camp Evans in Wall Township. At its peak during World War II, Fort Monmouth measured 1,713 acres (6.9 km²), and had billeting space for 1,559 officers and 19,786 enlisted personnel. More communications units, including the Pigeon Breeding and Training Center, were consolidated into Fort Monmouth after the war ended. The pigeon service was discontinued in 1957; the birds were either sold at auction or donated to zoos.

[edit] Rosenbergs

Julius Rosenberg had worked as a radar inspector at Fort Monmouth in 1942 and 1943. It is from the fort that he was accused of stealing proximity fuze plans and passing them on to the Soviet Union. Documents released by Russia after the Cold War showed that Julius Rosenberg was indeed a spy. In October of 1953, Joseph McCarthy claimed that Julius Rosenberg had set up a wartime spy ring at Fort Monmouth and that the ring might still be in operation. Two Fort Monmouth scientists, Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant fled to the Soviet Union. [2]

[edit] Current Mission

Today, Fort Monmouth is home to the Communications and Electronics Life Cycle Management Command (CE-LCMC). There are parts of the Army’s information technologies and integrated systems center. Though no longer the home of the U.S. Army Signal Corps (after its move to Ft. Gordon, Georgia in the 1970s), Ft. Monmouth is sometimes referred to as the "Soul of the Signal Corps" and houses the official Time Capsule of the Army Signal Corps.

The base is home to the Communications and Electronics Life Cycle Management Command (CE-LCMC), which consists of the following:

  • Communications Electronics Command (CECOM), which researches and manages the Army's communications needs. Sections of CECOM include the Software Engineering Center (SEC); Information Systems Engineering Command (ISEC); Logistics and Readiness Center (LRC); Tobyhanna Army Depot; and CECOM Acquisition Center (AC)
  • Communications and Electronics Research and Development Center (CERDEC) which helped develop Night Vision goggles, counter equipment for improvised explosive devices, shortstop electronic protection systems, and well sensor systems to provide soldiers with a safe method for rapidly inspecting wells and underground locations.
  • Three program executive offices for Command, Control, Communications Tactical; Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors; and Enterprise Information Systems.

Also located on the base is:

  • the 754th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit, which provides emergency response to military and federal civilian agencies throughout New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Pennsylvania.

The Patterson Army Health Clinic serves Army service members and their families, also those from Earl Naval Weapons Station and a Coast Guard station in Sandy Hook, NJ. It also serves more than 7,000 veterans and their families, as a VA clinic.

Most of the employees on the base are civilians employed by the Army or civilian contractors.

Fort Monmouth is also noted for its Sun Eagles Golf Course, one of the better military golf courses in the nation.

School-aged children at the Fort in grades 9 through 12 attend Monmouth Regional High School in Tinton Falls, part of the Monmouth Regional High School District.

[edit] Closure by BRAC

Fort Monmouth was recommended for closure by the Pentagon in May 2005. BRAC voted in August 2005 to close the base; their decision was upheld by President George Bush and Congress. An appeal headed by U.S. Representatives Frank Pallone and Rush Holt to remove the base from the list was made to the BRAC commission, but was rejected.

In particular, BRAC recommended:

  • Relocate the US Army Military Academy Preparatory School to West Point, NY.
  • Relocate the Joint Network Management System Program Office to Fort Meade, MD.
  • Relocate the Budget/Funding, Contracting, Cataloging, Requisition Processing, Customer Services, Item Management, Stock Control, Weapon System Secondary Item Support, Requirements Determination, Integrated Materiel Management Technical Support Inventory Control Point functions for Consumable Items to Defense Supply Center Columbus, OH, and reestablish them as Defense Logistics Agency Inventory Control Point functions.
  • Relocate the procurement management and related support functions for depot level repairables to Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, and designate them as Inventory Control Point functions, detachment of Defense Supply Center Columbus, OH, and
  • Relocate the remaining integrated materiel management, user, and related support functions to Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, along with Information Systems, Sensors, Electronic Warfare, and Electronics Research and Development & Acquisition (RDA).
  • Relocate the elements of the Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems and consolidate into the Program Executive Office, Enterprise Information Systems at Fort Belvoir, VA.

The Defense Department estimated the closure of Fort Monmouth would cause the loss of 9,737 jobs (5,272 direct and 4,465 indirect jobs) between 2006 and 2011, leading to a 0.8% increase in unemployment. However, DoD also calculated the closure and other changes would save it about $1 billion in the long run.

[edit] Redevelopment

On April 28, 2006, Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine signed into law the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Act, which established the Fort Monmouth Revitalization Planning Authority, to plan and manage the redevelopment of Fort Monmouth once it closes.

The authority consists of four state appointees, the head of the state Commerce, Economic Growth and Tourism Commission, the mayors of Eatontown, Oceanport and Tinton Falls, and a representative of the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders. The 10th, non-voting member was chosen by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to represent Fort Monmouth. The legislation creating the commission, proposed by State Senators Joseph Kyrillos and Ellen Karcher, received bipartisan support, but only after wrangling in the legislature over its composition and authority.

The authority holds meetings that rotate between the municipal buildings of the three towns whose mayors sit on the board. In July 2006, the authority met for the first time and selected its chairman, Robert Lucky, a Corzine appointee, who was not supported by the three mayors. In September, the authority hired a real estate development company executive, Frank C. Cosentino, of West Long Branch, to be its executive director.

As mandated by federal law, the authority must advertise for notices of interest from any state, county, municipal or private, non-profit agency which would provide homeless assistance to Monmouth County residents. Notices are due by March 8, 2007.

[edit] Sources

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