Force Provider: The Base in a Box

Scientists and planners for the U.S. Army are designing the one-size-fits-all base-in-a-box in an effort to make military operations more efficient. Another advantage of this off-the-shelf package is that it comes with instructions that can be assembled by anybody, anywhere, eliminating the need for quartermaster battalions and paving the way for private contractors to set the bases up. The Army has been contracting support services out to Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

One of the key elements of the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) contract is support for pre-fabricated military bases, known as Force Provider. Each module is capable of housing 550 soldiers in comfort, with satellite televisions, chapels, showers, laundry rooms, complete kitchens as well as climate-controlled tents. Each $5 million module is designed to work in weather ranging from 15 below zero or 120 above. The 10-acre base camp, which takes about ten days to assemble, needs 50 support staff to set it up and run it.

The kits were designed by the Army's Natick Labs in Massachussetts after G.I.s in Operation Desert Storm complained about living conditions. The Army borrowed the idea of a "base-in-a-box" from the Air Force, which has kits called Harvest Eagle and Harvest Falcon for its soldiers. Today there are 27 of these Force Provider modules, each consisting of a 100 or so containers, at locations around the world, ready for shipment at a moment's notice.

"These kits benefit soldiers. It's a better way of life. It keeps them off the dirty ground. They've got just about everything you've got at home, except a wife," says William Oliver, a supervisor at the Defense Depot in Albany, Georgia where some of these kits are stored. Michael Gallagher, Force Provider's program manager at Natick, says officials recently visited troops overseas living in the modules. "They were getting handwritten notes from the troops, saying, 'I've never deployed in conditions as good as this.' That's what it's all about."

One of the more unusual components of the Force Provider is a "containerized chapel," a multi-denominational religious center catering to Christians, Jews, and Muslims, which can be set up in six hours out of a box that measures 8-by-8-by-10 feet. Complete with its own altar power supply, electronic piano, and a digital hymnal, the chapel is 64-feet long and comfortably seats 100 people. "We like to say that we not only take care of the soldier's body, but of his spirit. We're great defenders of the right of everyone to express their faith," says Ben Richardson, the chaplain at Natick Labs who helped develop the containerized chapel.

According to the latest Defense Department statistics, of the 470,000 soldiers in the Army, about 40 percent are Protestant, 20 percent are Catholic, while Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu all make up less than 1 percent. The rest, presumably are atheists or unafilliated. The Catholic kit, for example, includes a heavy metal cross and chalice. The Islamic kit has 10 kufis (male prayer caps), kimaras (female head coverings), prayer mats, and Korans. The Jewish kit includes 10 yarmulkes and camouflage prayer shawls.

• 124 War & Disaster Profiteering