Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

204 THE FIRST 100 YEARS
Entrance Processing Station, 55th Signal, the Defense
Courier Service, Office of Personnel Management, 902 nd ,
Defense Adjudication Activities, Modular buildings for
KACC, and two new Child Development Centers.
Most people don’t know that the Commissary was once
located along Rock Avenue and was housed in what was
formally a horse stable. It was quite an experience to shop
there! Also during this period, a new Commissary, Post
Exchange and Officers Club, now Club Meade, were
constructed.
The two 18-hole golf courses no longer exist. Gigantic
buildings have consumed the golf courses, like the
million square foot Defense Information Systems
Agency complex, Defense Media Activity, and most
recently the massive East Campus construction project
to accommodate the recapitalization for NSA, the newly
established U.S. Cyber Command and several military
service cyber elements.
Several renovation projects have been completed and
projects now underway have and will continue to improve
efficiency and effectiveness of units that perform their
missions here. Access onto and off the installation will
be improved with infrastructure projects that either have
been or will be funded. Traffic congestion and ways to
mitigate it remain a concern but efforts are underway to
address these types of issues.
Another major change has been the privatization of
facility maintenance functions formerly performed by the
Directorate of Public Works, family housing and more
recently enlisted apartments, transient lodging, water and
sewer services, and gas and electric facilities. Most have
proven beneficial to the installation.
Aside from the physical changes, Fort Meade, at one
time an Army post focused on soldiers, is now an Army
post that is home to every branch of military service.
Today, the overall atmosphere and environment has
changed from a training and maneuver force-focused
atmosphere of a traditional Army post, to a place where
the most high-tech, cutting-edge technology is deployed
on the new warfare domain of cyberspace. The installation
has morphed from being what we considered a troop
installation to something more like a college campus. In
fact, a former Maryland Senator was credited as one of
the first to call it the Fort Meade campus. The feeling that
one gets when working and/or visiting Fort Meade is
more relaxed now.
As much as the installation may transform, military
tradition ties the decades together through activities that
will never change. Traditions like formation runs when
units come together in the pre-dawn hours to doubletime
around the installation to the music of cadence
calls. And while the uniforms may change, other activities
like changes of command, changes of responsibility and
retirement events held on the McGlachlin Parade Field or
at the McGill Training Center will always occur. Even with
all the changes, Fort George G. Meade is still a wonderful
place to work, live, play and stay!
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