Marine Corps Logistics Base ALBANY Ga. -- On their first stop as part of a planned Georgia military installations sweep, the top two officials with the Georgia Military Affairs Coordinating Committee visited Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany, Jan. 26.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. David Bockel, executive director, and retired Army Col. Bill Cain, deputy executive director, received a windshield tour of the base, command briefs from MCLB Albany and Marine Corps Logistics Command senior staff, a tour of Maintenance Center Albany and a visit to the Landfill Gas-to-Energy site.
“As long as I’ve lived in Georgia, I’ve never been to this base, and because it is very important to the military community and this state, I wanted this to be my first stop,” Bockel said. “My goal with this trip as the incoming director is to see the base firsthand, get to know the people who work here and hear from them how we can support their mission going forward.”
Bockel, a former Army logistician, said it is important to continue developing the relationships between the community and the military.
“My number one priority is to expand communications out from just the 27 members, who make up the GMACC committee and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, into the communities so everyone has a stake in what happens to the military in Georgia,” Bockel said.
The executive director said with the major defense cuts and possible new rounds of Base Realignment and Closure, GMACC intends to make sure everything is done strategically to look out for all of the installations.
Cain said Bockel is new to GMACC, arriving in October 2011, and has never visited many of the installations in Georgia.
“It’s my job to orient him to each of the nine installations in the state so he can meet the commanders and community leaders,” Cain said. “It is important that he has a really good feel of what the installations’ needs are so we at the state level can help them.”
Cain added it is always good to come back and visit Albany because he was born and raised in nearby Thomasville, Ga., and there is nothing like coming home to South Georgia. Bockel said his goal is to visit the principal bases throughout the state of Georgia at least twice a year to make sure GMACC stays on top of any issues, concerns or needs.
“The windshield tour of the base was really nice and there are a lot of great things going on here,” he said. “This is the first and only base we’re visiting on this tour. It was great because as a logistician, I actually knew what I was looking at.”