SAN DIEGO - The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) presented the Wheeler Medal to ERDC Construction Engineering Research Laboratory’s (CERL) Kurt Kinnevan at the society’s recent training workshop in San Diego, Calif.
Founded in 1955 to honor Lt. Gen. Raymond A. Wheeler, the medal recognizes outstanding contributions to military engineering through achievement in design, construction, research or development.
Kinnevan is program manager for the Virtual Forward Operating Base program and contingency basing actions for ERDC. He leads efforts to understand and integrate system interactions within a contingency base along with the associated resource requirements. His research program has established new doctrinal requirements for contingency bases; determined basic use factors for power/fuel, water, and waste generation at bases ranging in size from 100 to 2,000 personnel; and identified operational design needs. This work is producing simulation tools that can help the Army plan, design, operate, and manage contingency bases, with initial prototypes already in use.
“Kurt’s efforts have led the Army to change the way it addresses contingency basing,” said Debbie Curtin, chief of CERL’s Environmental Processes Branch. “Now contingency bases are seen as a complex set of systems that have a direct impact on mission dynamics and success. This approach is being incorporated into analytical methods across the Army.”
To achieve this success, Kinnevan has navigated and coordinated with multiple organizations and leaders at the highest levels of the Department of Defense (DOD). Among the stakeholders collaborating in this work are the Training and Doctrine Command; Army Central Command; Program Executive Office for Combat System and Combat Systems Support (PEO CS&CSS); Assistant Secretariats (Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology [ALT], and Installations, Environment, and Energy); Army Staff G-4, and others. In addition, he is the U.S. delegation lead for a contingency base working group under NATO.
According to Curtin, “As the co-lead on a PEO CS&CSS team to address contingency basing, Kurt was a key influence in ASA(ALT)’s decision to establish new Army Staff element – the Contingency Basing Infrastructure Program Office.” This office will, among other activities, facilitate the evaluation of new technologies at both the components and systems levels for their potential to address resource requirements, improve quality of life, and support life-cycle economics at contingency bases.