Aviano Air Base Falls into Step Under Central Line of Command
Five years after the U.S. Air Force moved its 31st Fighter Wing to Italy's Aviano Air Base, the Pentagon's largest military construction project was slogging almost to a halt. Bureaucratic contracting complexities, cultural differences between local Italian contractors and an overburdened base engineering staff were compounded by the Air Force's growing military role in a series of conflicts in Bosnia and Serbia. In 1998, when senior combat officers began to be drawn too far into construction management, top Air Force officers stepped in to establish a separate program management office that now has the $530-million project headed for a 2007 completion.
"Five years into the project is probably a little too late," deadpans Air Force Col. Gary C. LaGassey, program manager for the Aviano 2000 program, about the establishment of his office. Still, observers credit the career Air Force officer with no previous construction or program management experience, with turning the job around through some commonsense management practices and the buildup of the office from six overworked project engineers to more than 25 staffers, including experienced program and project managers brought in from various service branches and the private sector.