Present Day
In 2007, the state of Georgia announced that it had acquired the NAS Atlanta property as the new headquarters for the Georgia Army National Guard. This preceded plans for units in the remote corners of the state to consolidate at the base.
The first Georgia Army National Guard aircraft assigned to the new installation, a UH-60M Blackhawk, arrived on 25 August 2009. It was delivered to the 1/832 Medivac Unit fresh from the production line.
On 26 September 2009, the Georgia National Guard assumed ownership of the former Naval Air Station Atlanta at a formal transfer of facilities ceremony. The transfer was the result of the 2005 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission report which recommended closing the 50-year-old Marietta base. Captain Chuck Mingonet officially turned over the base to General Nesbitt, Adjutant General of the Georgia State Department of Defense. Commander, Navy Region Southeast, Rear Admiral Tim Alexander was in attendance along with many other flag officers and dignitaries. Governor Sonny Perdue, members of Georgia's Congressional delegation and state legislature, as well as local dignitaries including Chairman Sam Olens and Commissioner Bob Ott, were on hand for the event. The facility's name was also changed to the General Lucius D. Clay National Guard Center in honor of the World War II hero and coordinator of the Berlin Airlift. Clay was a Cobb County native. Following the ceremony, Georgia National Guard also held a groundbreaking for its new Joint Force Headquarters. The headquarters is scheduled for completion in 2012. More than 1,500 Georgia Guard soldiers and airmen will perform training on the property in the future.
Read more about this topic: General Lucius D. Clay National Guard Center
Famous quotes containing the words present and/or day:
“People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people’s minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues.”
—Elizabeth Gaskell (1810–1865)
““All day long from mid-day
We have talked in the one place,
All day long from shadowless noon
We have gone round and round
In the narrow theme of love
Like an old horse in a pound.””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)