THERE'S SOMETHING UNIQUELY APPEALING about a 10-mile run -- just ask the 26,000 people who will be lining up this Sunday for the Army Ten-Miler. "It's challenging because it's not your regular 5K or 10K, but it's not so daunting as a marathon or a half-marathon. You can do it without being wiped out afterwards," explains Alisa Harvey, who makes it sound so simple because she's won the race four times.
While other folks might not be as speedy as Harvey, she thinks just about anybody has the ability to complete the course. But it could help to get some advice from her and from two-time Olympian runner Meredith Rainey Valmon, who are offering pre-race expo clinics this Friday and Saturday (at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel — see Armytenmiler.com for details).
Continue Reading "The 10-Mile Commandments: Army Ten-Miler" »
YESTERDAY WAS yet another 9/11. It wasn't like the original, which was a flurry of horror, conjecture, sorrow and fear. Nor was it like the second one in 2002, during which we learned that the old hurts from the first were closer to the surface than we'd realized.
Nor was it like the third. Or fourth. In fact, by the time this Sept. 11 rolled around, the day had, in my mind, become what it was destined to be: an indelible moment, sure, but one whose impact had weathered with time.
Then, while at work, I saw photos of the memorial to 9/11 victims that had just opened at the Pentagon.
That struck a chord.
It's easy for people to see the Pentagon as a cold, concrete edifice — easier still because it houses the most powerful military machine the world has ever known, mighty enough to destroy everything alive several times over.
For me, though, the Pentagon is where Dad works. Always has been.
As I grew up and moved from my native Virginia 'burbs into the city, I oriented myself by the Pentagon. I parked there to ride the Metro. I cooled my heels at its bus hub. Even though I roamed its rings only once that I remember, at the age of 9 or so, I felt a connection to it — it's where my father has spent most of his days since Richard Nixon was calling the shots.
PLANS TO CONSOLIDATE the Washington area's military medical facilities were drawn up before the scandal over conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, documented by The Washington Post, forced officials to take a hard look at the kind of care wounded veterans received when they returned to the States.
Accordingly, plans to shift and consolidate Walter Reed's facilities to new hospital centers in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir in Virginia have been upgraded to deal with the realities of a long-term war, as The Post's Steve Vogel reports.
Let's take a look at the new plans, by the numbers ...
» $2 billion: The number of dollars the Defense Department is spending on the new facilities in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir that will replace the current Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District.
» 71: The percentage increase in cost to that the effort to close Walter Reed and redeploy its services has seen since initial 2005 projections from the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
» 120: The number of beds at the new Army hospital planned for Fort Belvoir.
Continue Reading "By the Numbers: Walter Reed's Replacements" »
IF YOU WERE DELAYED by Thursday afternoon's Metrorail shutdown at the Pentagon station, you can blame it on bomb scare. According to Metro, a Chinese national living in Fairfax County allegedly claimed that another man was carrying a briefcase with a bomb in it.
The station was closed at 2:42 p.m. as law enforcement officials investigated the suspicious package in question, which was located near the station faregates. In the end, nothing was identified as dangerous and the station was reopened at 4 p.m. Residual delays lasted into the early evening rush. During the shutdown, shuttle bus service ferried passengers around the Pentagon.
The man who made the initial report, 34-year-old Ting Liu, was charged with making a false bomb threat and disorderly conduct, which are felonies that carry a possible 10-year prison sentence.
» EARLIER: "Pentagon Station Closed for Suspicious Package" [Free Ride/Express]
IF YOU PLAN TO USE THE BLUE AND YELLOW LINES this afternoon, beware: The Pentagon station is currently closed because of a suspicious package. Trains are turning back and are not servicing the station. Shuttle buses have been requested to ferry passengers around the Pentagon station, but those are not expected to arrive until 3:30 p.m.
» UPDATE, 4:15 p.m.: The situation has been resolved but expect residual delays.
» "Pentagon Metrorail Station Temporarily Closed" [WMATA]
METRORAIL WILL open two hours early on Sunday to accommodate those looking to watch or participate in the Marine Corps Marathon. Stations will open at 5 a.m., a little more than three hours before the race's scheduled 8:15 a.m. start time.
The transit agency notes that services normally run out of the Pentagon station will be relocated to Pentagon City because of the marathon.
Also, anyone planning to travel between Virginia and the District on Sunday morning might want to consider Metro as an option. Travel by car will be difficult at best.
» "Metrorail to Open Early for Sunday's Marine Corps Marathon" [WMATA]
ALTHOUGH SIX YEARS can certainly dull the pain of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the memories still sting. What started as a beautiful Tuesday morning in September turned into a national nightmare, the majority of it playing out in Lower Manhattan at the World Trade Center. But anyone who was in Washington at the time can recall the horror and confusion that day brought locally, whether they witnessed the aftermath of the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 into the western side of the Pentagon (above), lost a loved one 
or were simply caught in gridlocked traffic (at left) escaping the what ifs and unknowns of that morning. Had a bomb gone off near the State Department, as had been reported in early broadcast reports? No. Was a second plane headed toward another D.C. target? Yes, likely aimed at the Capitol campus — above is first lady Laura Bush, in red, being escorted from the Russell Senate Office Building where she was supposed to give testimony on early childhood development. But the missing plane, United Flight 93, crashed in rural Pennsylvania. With that doomed flight missing its intended target, the nation's capital escaped a worse disaster, but that doesn't ease the unease that'll be tied to Sept. 11, until it, much like Dec. 7, 1941, starts to fade from the national consciousness as the decades pass. To stave off our forgetting too soon, however, we have a new memorial rising from the Pentagon's hallowed ground, to join the countless others that form fabric of the nation's capital.
For a detailed look at the conception and construction of that memorial, check out this special series from The Post and washingtonpost.com.
From top, photos by The Washington Post's Rich Lipski, Carol Guzy, Susan Biddle and Ray Lustig
AFTER ANOTHER SERIES of smoky eruptions shut down another batch of Metrorail stations during Monday's evening rush, Metro officials are considering the possibility that the incidents could have been caused intentionally.
"This is not normal," Metro General Manager John Catoe said, according to The Post's Lena H. Sun and Martin Weil. "This is highly, highly irregular."
Report Sun and Weil:
Asked whether he thought the incidents might be intentional, [Catoe] said: "Could it be something else [other than an accident]? Everything now is suspicious."Monday's delays began at around 7 p.m. after several trains lost power between the Pentagon City and Braddock Road stations on the Blue and Yellow lines, according to a Metro press statement. A track fire was reported at the Pentagon City station. A fire was also reported at the U Street-Cardozo station, which shut down both that station and the stop at Columbia Heights from 7:20 p.m. to 8:40 p.m., the statement said.A spokesman for the D.C. fire department said that the department was "very concerned" about the large number of incidents in a brief period and that the department would try to assist Metro in determining whether they were more than accidental.
Shuttle buses ferried passengers between L'Enfant Plaza and Huntington and also between the Georgia Avenue-Petworth and Shaw-Howard University stations.
Continue Reading "Smoke, Fire Cause Another Messy Metro Commute" »
THE FEAR OF BIOLOGICAL DISASTERS has crept up in the public consciousness yet again now that a Georgia man with a rare strain of tuberculosis has become the first person to be ordered quarantined by the U.S. government since 1963. With the growing ease of international travel over the past few decades and an increase in the number of antibiotic-resistant organisms, a pandemic could be more devastating and spread more quickly than ever. So the timing has turned out to be pretty good for previously scheduled gatherings to prepare for potential biological emergencies in Alexandria and Arlington County.
On Saturday, the Arlington Office of Emergency Management plans to simulate the response to a biological attack on the Pentagon. (Pictured above is photo of a May 2002 biological, chemical and radiological attack simulation at the military HQ.) Says the alert in characteristically vague language: "Curiosity about the test may cause some traffic congestion in the immediate area." Curiosity? That's an understatement. Considering that two police cars parked on the I-395 shoulder can back up traffic for 10 miles, what will happen when drivers see legions of responders in bright yellow biohazard suits running drills around the Pentagon?
In our post-9/11 world, an emergency drill on the grounds of the Pentagon might scare a few folks, which is why the alert points out: "The test is completely safe for participants and bystanders."
Continue Reading "Northern Va. Prepares for Flu, Biological Attack" »
Shift of Army Jobs to Ft. Belvoir Could Be Delayed
Map It:
Crystal City Franconia-Springfield
Pentagon
JUST AS ARLINGTON COUNTY continues to prepare for the looming mass redeployment of Defense Department jobs to Fort Belvoir as part of the current Base Realignment and Closure cycle, it's becoming more possible that those 9,000 jobs might not leave according to the original mandated schedule, which has a 2011 deadline.
Rep. Jim Moran, who represents Alexandria and Arlington on Capitol Hill, introduced an amendment to a defense spending bill that would require that the Army put needed transportation infrastructure improvements in place before those jobs move. The House approved the legislation with Moran's amendment attached.
As The Post's Amy Gardner reports, whether Senate conferees on the spending bill go along Moran's amendment is still in question — but to traffic-fearing Fairfax County officials, who have been highly critical of the Army's lack of broader transportation preparation related to the Fort Belvoir shift, it is a victory, at least in principle.
As Gardner writes:
Specifically, Moran's amendment would require the Army to ensure that transportation improvements are "substantially" completed before the transfer takes place. The Army has identified 13 transportation projects, with an estimated cost of $446 million, as necessary to prevent roads near Fort Belvoir from experiencing greater congestion. The projects include completing the Fairfax County Parkway, widening Route 1 and adding bus lines to serve the post.An interim solution may be utilizing a General Services Administration warehouse near the Blue Line's terminus at Franconia-Springfield.
» "Crystal City Revitalization Resulting From BRAC Initiatives" [Arlington County]
» "Arlington Envisions Crystal City After BRAC" [WaPo]
» "House Delays Army Plan to Move Jobs to Ft. Belvoir" [WaPo]
Photo by of Virginia Rep. Jim Moran by Gerald Martineau/The Washington Post
Addison Road