Soldiers' Refuge at Base Gets Makeover

08/25/05
Gazette.net

By Tiesha Higgins

A specialized room at Andrews Air Force Base for service members returning from Iraq has been updated and refurbished through donated money and services from civilian businesses and individuals valued at $150,000.

More than 400 of the service members returning to the Camp Springs base each month pass through the Maryland Room, a 1,000-square-foot lounge area with a living room, connecting kitchen and several private alcoves.

‘‘You may not have mom’s home-cooking or the hug of a relative, but you still have a lot of those comforts of home that these guys have missed out on while they were overseas,” said James Estepp, director of communications for the Greater Prince George’s Business Roundtable. The group, headed by his father former county councilman M.H. ‘‘Jim” Estepp, solicited funds and physical labor for the room’s four-month-long renovation from a range of county businesses. Among them were NAI Michael Companies, W.F. Chesley & Associates and Essex Construction.

The group already had ties to the base through the Andrew Business Alliance — an arm of the roundtable focused on securing more of the base’s contracts for local businesses.

‘‘Without the enormous efforts of the Business Roundtable, the current scope and speed of the project could not have been possible,” said Maj. Kelly Breitbach, Aeromedical Staging Facility flight commander for the 89th Medical Group at Malcolm Grow Hospital. ‘‘There is no question that this project has proven that the combined partnership of military and civilian leaders has provided our returning heroes with a quality environment for their return – one they have earned and deserve.”

Adorned with its original furnishings and amenities from the 1970s until the recent renovation, the room located in the Malcolm Grow Medical Center on the base was upgraded with four computer stations, a 60-inch plasma television, new flooring, furniture, air conditioning and ceiling.

Aside from a few minor touch ups, the new refuge is set to be unveiled Sept. 8.