Letterkenny

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Cargill announced Friday that the company will rebuild its feed mill that was destroyed by a fire on Feb. 12. The mill, known as the Letterkenny Feed Depot, burned to the ground in the early morning hours that day. The rebuilding will include many upgrades to the mill's capabilities, according to a press release from Cargill. "While the physical damage to our Letterkenny mill last winter was severe, the event could not dissuade us from recognizing the tremendous loyalty shown by regional livestock producers for our products since the fire," Rob Sheffer, regional general manager for Cargill Animal Nutrition, said in the release.

With a little more than a month before Letterkenny employees are faced with a furlough that could shorten their work week to four days, the depot is helping workers manage the financial fallout. Individual, personal financial counseling sessions began Monday and will continue through March 22, according to Letterkenny spokeswoman Lindsay Bryant. Letterkenny's 4,000 workers could lose 20 percent of their pay as a result of federal budget cuts commonly known as sequestration, according to a statement released by Letterkenny earlier this month.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The Chambersburg Area School District has a seat on the Letterkenny Industrial Development Authority Board of Directors after School Board President D. Eugene Gayman was appointed Tuesday to fill a vacancy. Gayman, of Chambersburg, was appointed by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday to fill the unexpired term of Stephen K. Rice. The former president of the Whitetail Ski Resort resigned in March when he moved from the county to take another job. Commissioner G. Warren Elliott said the county wanted the school system to have a representative on the 15-member authority board because "they're probably going to have a major stake out there" at the depot.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Friday the 13th was a lucky day for the 2,492 employees at Letterkenny Army Depot as the Department of Defense announced its recommendation to the Base Realignment and Closure Commission not only to spare the depot from closure, but to add hundreds of new civilian jobs. "Not only is Letterkenny OK, but we're going to gain 409 jobs," U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., announced to members of the Opportunity '05 Committee Friday morning.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. -- The $11.6 million complex under construction at Letterkenny Army Depot will make the depot a "one-stop shop for (the) Patriot" surface-to-air missile system, Col. Steven Shapiro said. Shapiro described the planned Missile Monitoring and Certification Buildings as a missile storage and maintenance facility without a comparable facility elsewhere in the country under the U.S. Department of Defense. "This culminates a labor of love since the 2005 BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure)

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Letterkenny Army Depot announced Wednesday that construction soon will begin on an $11.6 million missile complex, a move that will further consolidate missile maintenance at the depot and add about 100 jobs between 2009 and 2011. The contract for the Missile Monitoring and Certification Facility was awarded this week to Lobar Inc. of Dillsburg, Pa., according to a depot statement. Construction off Georgia Avenue near the entrance to the munitions area will begin this spring and is expected to be completed by October 2009.

chambersburg@herald-mail.com CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said Wednesday he hopes the Base Realignment and Closure Commission can be persuaded to bring more than the 409 new jobs the Department of Defense recommends be moved to Letterkenny Army Depot and reverse recommendations to close two other military bases in Pennsylvania. Santorum, R-Pa., joined U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., in a meeting in Chambersburg with members of Opportunity '05, the committee that has orchestrated efforts to support the depot during the latest BRAC round.

By RICHARD F. BELISLE Staff Writer CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- Julie Knott and Scott McNew are both 18, attend vo-tech school, are volunteer firefighters and know they want to turn professional. To reach their goals, they enrolled in the protective services curriculum at Franklin County Area Vocational Technical School. Both are finishing up a six-week internship with the Letterkenny Army Depot Fire Department. Internships give students hands-on training in firefighting, police work or emergency medical services, the three careers taught in the curriculum.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. - A Waynesboro native who helped oversee the realignment of Letterkenny Army Depot and other installations in the U.S. Army Materiel Command was recently inducted into the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame. Lt. Gen. Dennis L. Benchoff, was deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command when he retired in 1998. He was among 11 people inducted into the hall May 11 during a ceremony at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. "That was a tough thing to do and it affected a lot of people, but it was the right thing to do," Benchoff said Sunday about the Base Realignment and Closure Commission process that reduced the number of depots from 18 in 1988 to five today.

By LARRY MARGASAK / Associated Press Writer photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Tom Cohenour maneuvered his golf cart through a cavernous maintenance building at the Letterkenny Army Depot, past the hulking ghosts of busier days. He glided past the huge structures where the Army's tanks were X-rayed and the turntables where specialists repaired equipment. He passed the machine shop that once manufactured any tank part that couldn't be bought.

Employees at Letterkenny Army Depot are facing fewer furlough days than originally expected - workers are looking at 11 days without pay rather than 14. The 11 days are down from the 14 that the Pentagon advised would be needed, and only half of the 22 days originally anticipated, according to a statement released by the depot. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced in a town hall Tuesday that Department of the Army civilians will be furloughed up to 11 days, beginning no earlier than July 8. The furlough is scheduled to begin July 8 at the rate of one furlough day per week through the end of the current fiscal year, Sept.

The Chambersburg area's annual POW/MIA Service of Remembrance will be on Armed Forces Day, which is Saturday, at 11 a.m. at the Letterkenny Chapel, 2171 Carbaugh Ave. The service will be followed by memorial dedications at the adjacent Franklin County Veterans and 9/11 Memorial Park, according to a news release. The guest speaker will be Col. Glenn Dowling Frazier, a former prisoner of war and survivor of the World War II Bataan Death March. Born in Fort Deposit, Ala., Frazier enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 16 and was assigned to the Philippine Department under Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Workers at Letterkenny Army Depot will see a 22-day work furlough that was expected to begin this week as part of the federal budget sequester reduced by eight days, according to a depot spokeswoman. The United States Department of Defense has reduced the number of furlough days to 14, Letterkenny spokeswoman Lindsay Bryant said. The furlough was expected to begin in April and continue through September, Bryant said. Now, the furlough is slated to begin in mid- to late June, she said.

U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster has introduced legislation he said would stop the wasteful mismanagement of funds while securing work for Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg. Shuster, R-Pa., opposes continued development funding of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) program. “MEADS is a failure, and we can no longer afford to continue spending millions of dollars on a program that DoD has stated they have no intention of completing,” Shuster said in a news release. While visiting the Chambersburg depot last week, Shuster said he would prefer funding designated for MEADS instead be invested in the Patriot missiles systems developed at Letterkenny.

Letterkenny Army Depot on Thursday celebrated receiving its ninth Shingo medallion for excellence in manufacturing at a time when federal budget cuts are forcing operational changes. “Letterkenny will continue to raise the bar for itself, proving that no matter what obstacles we face, there will be absolutely no depreciation to the value of Letterkenny,” said Col. Victor S. Hagan, the depot's commander. As military spending continues to be reduced, the work at Letterkenny Army Depot will remain exceptional, Hagan said at a ceremony for the prize.

Letterkenny Army Depot this week is completing layoffs of 244 contracted employees as announced in January, a depot spokeswoman said. The layoffs occurring this week are not associated with the federal budget cuts known as the sequester, according to depot spokeswoman Lindsay Bryant. Instead, demand decreased for an Army Humvee program, Bryant said. “The workforce was resized to meet the workload,” she said. The depot, which employs up to 4,000 people, is anticipating additional layoffs and furloughs related to the sequester.

With a little more than a month before Letterkenny employees are faced with a furlough that could shorten their work week to four days, the depot is helping workers manage the financial fallout. Individual, personal financial counseling sessions began Monday and will continue through March 22, according to Letterkenny spokeswoman Lindsay Bryant. Letterkenny's 4,000 workers could lose 20 percent of their pay as a result of federal budget cuts commonly known as sequestration, according to a statement released by Letterkenny earlier this month.

Franklin County's largest employer braced itself for the fallout from the federal budget cuts set to go into effect Friday. Letterkenny Army Depot Commander Col. Victor S. Hagan Sr. made a statement to the depot work force that a work furlough of up to 22 nonconsecutive days would begin the week of April 22 and could continue through September if an agreement is not reached. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Feb. 20 that if automatic government spending cuts - called a “sequester” - kick in on March 1, he might have to shorten the workweek for the “vast majority” of the Defense Department's 800,000 civilian workers.

Letterkenny Army Depot stands to be one of the biggest losers if the federal sequestration cuts take place as scheduled in one week. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the depot would absorb spending reductions of more than $449 million. This would mean a massive loss of jobs and a ripple effect on the economy. “We've got real families here that are very nervous and anxious about what's going to happen,” said L. Michael Ross, president of the Franklin County (Pa.)

Letterkenny Army Depot's first African-American commander spoke during the Chambersburg base's annual Black History Month observance. Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert C. Gaskill Sr. was the guest speaker at Wednesday's event held in the great room at depot headquarters. Gaskill served as depot commander from 1974 to 1975 and was the first African-American to assume command of the base. Current commander Col. Victor S. Hagan is the second African-American to hold the position.