Knox Regional Development Alliance
Brig. Gen. (Ret) Jim Iacocca was one of 18 military veterans selected as a 2018 Salute to Veterans honoree! Louisville Business First recognized military veterans who’ve served our country and made valuable contributions to the local business community.
Source: The Lane Report
FORT KNOX, Ky. — Congressional, Army and Fort Knox leaders are calling the installation’s energy resilience test on October 24 a huge success.
Prior to this most recent test, Fort Knox engineers had performed several smaller shutdown tests to the post’s individual substations. A handful of other installations have also attempted smaller shutdowns.
For the October 24 test, the plan was for Fort Knox energy provider Nolin RECC to shut down all of Fort Knox’s substations, unplug from Louisville Gas & Electric — the electric and natural gas provider for the region — and independently stand up the Fort Knox grid, something no other Army installation has tried.
“At 10 a.m., the external power will get turned off to Fort Knox, and we’ll stand up on our own decentralized power generation at all of our substations, to include emergency generation,” said R.J. Dyrdek, energy manager for Fort Knox’s Directorate of Public Works, the day prior. “All circuits will be back up and running by hopefully no later than 10 after 10.”
Shortly before the start of the test, Nolin RECC officials expressed optimism that the outcome would be favorable.
“The thing to keep in mind is that anything could happen, but we are reasonably prepared and have a contingency for just about anything we can think of,” said Greg Lee, Nolin RECC’s vice president of systems operations. “We do test this in the middle of the night every six months.”
In the room sat U.S. Congressman Brett Guthrie of the 2nd District of Kentucky; Jack Surash, acting deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Energy & Sustainability; and Maj. Gen. John Evans Jr., commander of U.S. Army Cadet Command and Fort Knox. While they waited, the three asked questions of Lee and Dyrdek.
At 9:58, Dustin Ward, Nolin RECC-Fort Knox operations manager, began the power-down sequence to the substations, and Ward called LG&E to request disconnection from the grid around 10:01.
Everyone waited.
About a minute later, the room went dark. Seconds afterward, a generator outside the control station hummed to life and power came back to the control station. Lights flashed and flickered on the large monitors in front of the group as the system automatically started the reboot process.
Lee had explained to those in the room that the last few tests they performed have yielded little to no complications during the reboot process, although he admitted that sometimes computer systems hang up.
“We are cautiously optimistic that things are going to go quite well today,” said Lee, as the wall clock moved to 9:55.
Within a couple of minutes after the reboot, a problem surfaced. The power generation station for U.S. Army Human Resources Command wouldn’t close. Lee suggested the engineer try to close it manually.
Everyone continued to wait.
The call came in a little later that the breaker wouldn’t latch in. Ward suggested they continue working the issue. Finally, about 14 minutes into the test, the station locked in and started powering up.
“It’s closed in. Everything’s working as it should now,” said Ward. “We just had to make a quick reset. Something just caught up in the logic, I assume, but it’s closing its breakers now.”
The group of VIPs gathered up afterward to praise the Fort Knox team for their efforts in performing a successful test.
“It took a little longer than we anticipated but [Lee] suggested using a little grease, and that’s a good thing,” said Dyrdek. “I’m pretty excited about everything [being] back up and running.”
Pat Walsh, director of DPW, said about 2,000 facilities total, including 1,500 homes, get their power from the Fort Knox grid. Dyrdek said that with the kind of reserves they can tap into from heat, natural gas and other forms of energy, Fort Knox can actually run independently for an indefinite amount of time during an emergency. The current minimum, based on Army regulations, is 14 days.
“This shows that things can work in D.C.,” said Guthrie, after completion of the initial phase of the test.
Guthrie and other Kentucky congressmen were instrumental in getting legislation included in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act that assured Fort Knox’s continued focus on energy resilience.
“It makes Fort Knox unique, and it makes it better for other missions, and for opportunities for growth,” said Guthrie. “And it’s safety and security for our Soldiers, which is first and foremost.”
Surash said that while he hasn’t had the opportunity to get around to every installation working on energy resilience, he was very impressed with what Fort Knox accomplished.
“The capabilities at Fort Knox seem to be one of the best with respect to energy resiliency that I’m aware of,” said Surash. “I was happy to see that they actually tested that capability. It’s one thing to have a capability, but until you test it, you really don’t know what’s going to work and what’s not going to work.
“As it turns out this morning, the system worked as designed.”
Thank you to Holiday Inn Express Radcliff – Fort Knox for donating historic Fort Knox photographs. These are the perfect pieces to display in the Knox Regional Development Alliance office!
Source: The News-Enterprise, Katherine Knott
Fort Knox is secure for the long-term, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.
The Senate Majority Leader visited the U.S. Army post Tuesday and met with Fort Knox Commanding General Maj. Gen. John Evans Jr. McConnell’s stop was a day after President Donald Trump signed the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.
The $716 billion defense bill included a 2.6 percent pay raise for service members and a large increase in military spending. An amendment attached to the bill secured Fort Knox’s energy program for the future.
On his visit to the post, McConnell also observed training exercises.
“I’m proud of what’s going on here at Fort Knox,” he said. “Its facilities have reinvented itself over the years. … I think Fort Knox looks good for the future.”
McConnell said spending increases will help the military respond to threats around the world from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
“(The threats) are frankly about as challenging as you can imagine,” he said. “It almost makes you look back to the Cold War with yearning.”
McConnell said Russia is acting like the former Soviet Union.
“The Russians are not our friends,” he said. “They try to create problems in every way they can.”
The defense bill is an appropriate response to their actions, he said. To not increase spending would have been to deny reality, McConnell said.
“We gave the Department of Defense exactly what they asked for,” he said.
The amendment related to Fort Knox’s energy program was the work of McConnell, U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul.
Since 2015, it has used its own energy resources to power the post and no longer is dependent on the power grid.
However, the departments of defense and interior have disagreed over which agency had jurisdiction over natural gas. Kentucky lawmakers have sought for years to protect the program.
“It’s a great advantage to Fort Knox to be able to access that,” McConnell said. “It reduces the operating cost of keeping the post running.”
Fort Knox worked to overhaul its energy systems after a 2009 ice storm. Now, if a weather emergency knocks out the grid for the surrounding area, Fort Knox will be able continue running.
Jim Iacocca, director of the Knox Regional Development Alliance, said defense leaders are promoting the energy resilience of military installations. However, because of those jurisdictional concerns, they couldn’t highlight Fort Knox.
“Now, the Department of Defense can publicly acknowledge the energy resilience of Fort Knox,” he said.
Iacocca said energy independence is a selling point for new missions.
“(Fort Knox) is a role model,” he said.
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has appointed Knox Regional Development Alliance (KRDA) President and CEO Brig. Gen. (Ret) Jim Iacocca the new board chairman of Kentucky Commission on Military Affairs (KCMA).
KCMA is an independent agency attached to the office of the Governor that advocates for military installations and the related defense economy in Kentucky.
KCMA Executive Director Col. (Ret) Blaine Hedges welcomed the appointment.
“I have seen firsthand retired Brig. Gen. Iacocca’s positive efforts to advocate for Fort Knox,” said Hedges. “I know Kentucky will benefit from his leadership and I look forward to working with him even more in this new role.”
KRDA board chairman and Fort Knox Federal Credit Union President and CEO Ray Springsteen called the voluntary chairmanship role a great complement to Iaccoca’s work for KRDA.
“The position gives Brig. Gen. Iacocca a broader strategic view of the state’s efforts to grow the defense industry and helps to elevate the value of Fort Knox,” said Springsteen. “It’s a win for the state and the Fort Knox region.”
Springsteen said Iacocca’s effective leadership will be an asset to the entire state.
“Within a matter of months on the job, Brig. Gen. Iacocca has gained the respect and admiration of people throughout our region and at the state and federal levels,” Springsteen said.
Iacocca took the reins of KRDA in January, following more than 29 years of service in the U.S. Army including multiple assignments at Fort Knox with U.S. Army Human Resources Command and U.S. Army Recruiting Command.
Iacocca’s distinguished military career also included assignments at Fort Bragg, N.C., with the 82nd Airborne Division and Army Special Operations Command with which he deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq. He also served at the Pentagon on the staff for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Iacocca called the appointment a great privilege.
“I appreciate Gov. Bevin’s confidence in me,” said Iacocca. “I look forward to serving in this role for the betterment of Kentucky’s defense economy.”
One hundred years ago this month during World War I, the U.S. Army leased 20,000 acres of property in the area of Stithton, a small farming community in Hardin County.
Chosen for its high ground and proximity to the railroad, the Army later acquired the land along with parts of Meade and Bullitt counties and named it Camp Knox, in honor of Gen. Henry Knox, chief of artillery in the Revolutionary War and the first U.S. Secretary of War.
Over the past century, millions of soldiers and their families have trained or have been stationed at the iconic post. Now more than 100,000 acres, Fort Knox has been and continues to be an invaluable tool in our nation’s defense arsenal.
First home to field artillery units, then for decades the Army’s Armor training center where soldiers learned the art of tank warfare, today, Fort Knox is a multi-faceted installation with a wide array of missions including human capital management, leadership development, recruitment, reserve training, reserve aviation and active component engineering and sustainment commands.
While it is no doubt a great asset for the Department of Defense and a source of patriotic pride for central Kentuckians, people often underestimate Fort Knox’s economic value to our region.
For example, more than 16,000 people — soldiers, Department of the Army civilian employees and contractors — work at Fort Knox each day. And that doesn’t include the hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers who, on any given day, are on post for training.
Those 16,000 jobs equate to upwards of $750 million in annual payroll. That incredible spending power fuels another estimated 27,000 jobs off post. All told, the annual economic impact of Fort Knox is $2.6 billion.
That’s worth repeating: an annual economic impact of $2.6 billion.
Further, the potential for greater economic impact exists if the DoD adds more organizations to the installation and if we can attract more defense related businesses to our region.
That includes:
• Military organizations and state and federal agencies that want or need access to Fort Knox’s world-class training areas and ranges.
• Military organizations that want to realize cost savings and increased cybersecurity which the installation’s energy independence provides.
• Businesses that want to realize the synergy and opportunity that exists to grow their operations at the doorstep of the world’s largest human resource organization or an installation that is a global leader in energy independence.
That just scratches the surface of why Fort Knox is poised to grow and why our region’s economy is poised to grow with it.
That said, we all have a role to play in Fort Knox’s success. Our support to soldiers and their families, our great schools, affordable housing, top-notch health care, great transportation networks and the entertainment, retail and outdoor recreation options we have in central Kentucky provide an unmatched quality of place that makes Fort Knox all the more attractive.
That’s why it should come as no surprise that the Association of Defense Communities named the Greater Fort Knox Region a 2018 Great American Defense Community, one of only five in the country.
It is a well-deserved recognition, but also an opportunity to set the bar even higher. We have to be vigilant in our efforts to work collaboratively and make our region even better. That’s why we need to support the Lincoln Trail Workforce Development Board’s efforts to grow the available talent in our region, because new missions and new businesses need access to a highly skilled labor pool. That’s why we must continue to limit development near Fort Knox so there are no preventable restrictions placed on training operations. That’s why we must continue our steadfast support to soldiers and their families.
As we celebrate Fort Knox’s centennial and our designation as a Great American Defense Community, let’s honor the past with a commitment to the future.
Fort Knox 2118 — the possibilities are endless. Here’s to the next 100 years.
Work Matters column by Brig. Gen. (Ret) Jim Iacocca
