By Jack Moore
Federal News Radio

The final BRAC deadline is quickly approaching — September 15th.

One group that has already met its deadline is the Army Materiel Command, which under the base realignment plan’s dictates, had to make a cross-country move from Fort Belvoir in Virginia to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala.

Thomas Vajentic, the chief of the command’s transformation team and its BRAC program manager, told Federal News Radio the painstaking preparation made by AMC employees and the Huntsville community allowed the command to continue work in its new location “without missing a beat.”

Even before the final BRAC initiatives were finalized in 2005, the local Huntsville community had already set up a special committee, Vajentic said to prepare the way.

“Initially, within the first month, they had already made a couple of trips to Washington, D.C., and they wanted to make sure we had all the information that we needed about the Huntsville area,” he added.

That information was helpful in dispelling some preconceived notions.

“A lot of our employees had a lot of different perceptions when they first heard Alabama,” he said. “And that was soon quelled because they communities were able to come up and answer any questions that our employees had.”

The early prep work allowed the command to get a jump on moving personnel as well. The AMC began shifting employees to Huntsville in the latter part of 2008, Vajentic said.

“When we did have to turn the lights off at Fort Belvoir,” he added, “we already had over 1,000 employees doing work and (it) put us in tremendous great shape to make sure that our employees could still support the war and the rest of the services and our allies without missing a beat.”

But — as with any cross-country move — there were some challenges.

A series of violent tornadoes in the spring, during the same week that senior leaders were moving to Alabama, complicated matters , Vajentic said. “That was definitely something unforeseen,” he added.

But besides Mother Nature, there were also other challenges.

“I think we could have leveraged information technology a little better and sooner,” Vajentic said, acknowledging the inherent difficulties of doing so.

“I don’t even think a lot of people know what computer they’re going to have at their house in three years, let alone over 1,300 different computer systems for employees that are down here,” he explained.

Still, there was much the command got right in its move, he said.

“I think the biggest thing that we nailed was communication,” he said. The command’s public affairs teams thought outside the box to keep personnel and the public informed.

AMC posted information online, held teleconference brown-bag lunches, got the word out via Twitter — and even used more unconventional methods.

A camera set up near the grounds of the new site captured the construction Huntsville giving employees a time-lapsed glimpse of their new headquarters being built before their eyes.

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