By Douglas E. Jessmer, Pentagon News
Source: US Department of War
Oct. 29, 2026 — The War Department embarked this year on new initiatives to strengthen the infrastructure of military installations and to build a new prototype American base, said Dale Marks, assistant secretary of war for energy, installations and environment, earlier this week at a convention in Tampa, Florida.
“The visions for Fortress America and the Next Great American Base are not business-as-usual bureaucratic programs,” he said. “They are a national calling.”
Getting where the department wants to go with its installation footprint will mean overcoming a variety of hurdles, the biggest of which are time and bureaucratic inertia, Marks told attendees of the Association of Defense Communities convention.
“We must discard the comfortable complacency of a peacetime mindset and execute at a wartime tempo,” he said.
Stressing the need for a rapid operations tempo, Marks said those industry partners who move the fastest and have the boldest vision will earn the right to build America’s premier military community.
“Let us build installations worthy of the warriors who call them home,” he said. “Let us forge the partnerships required to secure our homeland. And let us ensure that whenever the call comes, the United States of America possesses the unshakeable power to prevail.”
Three warning signs indicate the importance of succeeding with both Fortress America and the Next Great American Base, Marks said, “flashing red across every dashboard in our national security apparatus.”
Those include:
Hostile actors in the homeland. Marks said these actors…LOGIN TO CONTINUE READING at www.devinenewsmembers.com. You will get instant access to our full E-edition, and begin getting the newspaper delivered to your home next week for $42 a year in Medina County. Support important local city, county, and school news like this!