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Naval Air Technical Training Center Mega Building Reopens

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050211-13
Release Date: 2/13/2005 8:00:00 AM

By Jena Stephenson, Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Public Affairs

PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- The Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC) re-opened Jan. 27, during a mid-morning ribbon-cutting ceremony with many military and civilians in attendance.

Chevalier Hall, which is also known as the Mega Building, has been closed to repair damages caused by Hurricane Ivan in September.

The ceremony was held at the North Entrance of Chevalier Hall and involved Capt. Lloyd Callis, commanding officer of NATTC, Capt. John Pruitt, commanding officer of the Naval Air Station Pensacola, and guest speakers Capt. Robert Raines, Naval Facility Southern Division, and Capt. Gerald Manley, Naval Facility Regional officer in charge of construction, Hurricane Ivan.

"This was a great team effort, and I think it is the beginning of a number of successes," Pruitt said. "We're on the way back! And its because of the hard work of this Naval Facility (Southern Division) team, great contractors like Broadmoor and their team, and great tenets like NATTC, the Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training (CNATT) and the Marines at MATSG [Marine Aviation Training Support Group] 21. We're all working together to solve these problems, and we're going to build a base for 2030."

The ceremony was the culmination of a $37.6 million project to restore the building, which was damaged so severely that it forced classes and offices to be moved to other buildings.

"We have come a long way since 100 days ago when we were sitting in the dark using our cell phones," Callis said during the ceremony. "What should have been a 14-18 month process was completed in 90 days."

The nearly 1-million-square-foot building, which was the main training facility for 4,000 students, was soaked with approximately six feet of seawater and mud. Reconstruction began toward the end of September, and included repairs to the roof, interior and exterior maintenance, slight building modifications and replacement of destroyed furniture.

The Mega Building, which earned its nickname because of its massive size, is the largest consolidated training building aboard the Naval Air Station Pensacola complex and one of the largest buildings in northwest Florida. Besides offices, the building includes hangars, classrooms and laboratories used in training aviation specialists for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard and allied nations.

Callis credits the teamwork of the Naval Facility Southern Division, and specifically Manley and Raines, with being able to make the facility what it needs to be - to give the Navy what it needs.

"This is a remarkable day," Raines said. "One hundred days ago, I remember meeting with Vice Adm. Harms [former commander Naval Education and Training Command], and he said that he thought we had an impossible task. He wanted to move people back into training in Chevalier Hall in 90 days. We didn't immediately tell him we could do it. We got a big group of guys together...and about 10 hours later I met with him and told him - 90 days - we can do it."

This project was truly the epitome of teamwork, according to Raines. They put the right team and the right plan and the right people into place. No one lost sight of Harms' mission focus - getting training back online and getting the permanent facilities open as quickly as they could.