Thursday, April 26, 2007

Fort Belvoir, on the Potomac in southern Fairfax County, has an expanding role as the Army's flagship installation.

It is home to more than 100 Army, Defense Department and federal agencies, including three major Army command headquarters.

Base realignment would make the fort the largest gainer of any installation in the Defense Department.

Plans entail an expansion of the 22,000 military and civilian workers to 44,000 by 2011 -- at facilities at the nearby Engineer Proving Ground and at the fort.

The Army's decision to keep those employees close to the installation, rather than distribute them throughout the county, has triggered concerns about resultant traffic.

These are some of the activities relocating to the base: medical care functions from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District; operations of the Army and the Defense Department that were in leased space elsewhere in the region; units of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; the program executive office of the Enterprise Information Systems from Fort Monmouth, N.J.; and inventory control functions from Mechanicsburg, Pa., and Wright Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.

The fort's services are many and varied, including a barbershop, library, military clothes shop, family health clinic and lessons in motorcycle safety.

Here are a few useful phone numbers:

· Military personnel seeking processing, common access cards of identification cards or other services should contact the directorate of military personnel, 703-805-1026.

· For information on identification cards for soldiers, family members and civilian employees, call 703-805-5578.

· For information on registering a vehicle or getting a temporary pass, call 703-806-4891/4892.

· For information on clinics of the Family Health Center, call 703-805-0612.

· For general inquires, contact the public affairs office at 703-805-5001.