When DCist was out for Sunday brunch at the Fort Meyer Officer’s Club, we picked up a copy of the Pentagram, the base’s newspaper. We often forget about all the news that happens on the area’s military bases, partially because base-life is relatively closed off and isolated from the general public. (DCist had trouble finding our way onto the base, with the Wright Gate, adjacent to the Iwo Jima Memorial, closed; we had to enter way over by Washington Boulevard via the Hatfield Gate.)
Here are some of the more interesting news items from the Pentagram, but only some are online:
– A broken steam pipe that has been causing the wall of the base’s bowling alley “to get real hot” is finally being fixed.
– Pest controllers are combating West Nile Virus-positive mosquitoes on base.
– USO will offer the World Wrestling Entertainments “Unforgiven” on a big screen at the base’s Community Activities Center in Building 405 on Sept. 12 at 8 p.m.
– A Chenega security officer was pinned between two vehicles during an “authorized vehicle search” at the Hatfield Gate. The “driver was transported to the Provost Marshal Officer, where he was processed, cited and escorted off post.”
– Military police found marijuana in a vehicle while it was undergoing a routine vehicle search. The substance tested positive for THC and military police brought the suspected civilian to the Provost Marshal Office where he was “further processed, cited and released on his own recognizance.”
Fort Meyer has an interesting history. It was originally part of the Custis-Lee estate, which was confiscated during the Civil War. Fortifications on the property were critical to the capital’s defense during the war. In 1908, it was also the site of the first military aircraft test flight. (Orville Wright was injured in a second test flight at the fort, a passenger was killed.)
