FORT LEE—Motorists along state Route 36 just outside Fort Lee slowed down yesterday morning to take a peek at the soldiers in full gear guarding the main gate. About a dozen protesters held posters and chanted, “No more hate! No more hate!“ The base’s law enforcement made sure the demonstrators stayed calm and outside Fort Lee’s perimeters.

A group of Tri-Cities businesses has asked for a longer comment period to examine the construction of a massive Army hotel at Fort Lee. The request seems reasonable. The on-base hotel—a thousand rooms with expansion capacity for another 700—would constitute one of the biggest in the region. It likely would draw business away from existing hotels, and maybe some restaurants, run by private business nearby.

A coalition of Tri-Cities businesses is seeking a 120-day extension to the public-comment period on the proposed construction of a 1,000-room Army hotel at Fort Lee. Sixty-six businesses signed a letter sent to Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-4th, and Sens. Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner, both D-Va., yesterday asking them to request the Army to extend the comment period for the proposed $118 million project.

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md.—Dozens of tanks and heavy artillery guns weighing tens of thousands of pounds are leaving the outdoor U.S. Army Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Ground for an indoor, climate-controlled facility. The relocation of the ordnance school and museum—requiring cranes that can lift 120 tons—is the largest move in the Army’s history, totaling about 60 pieces, and was spurred on by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. Construction at the Fort Lee facility should begin in the spring and be done by 2012.

A giant C-17 cargo-aircraft fuselage has arrived at Fort Lee. Fort Lee will use the 50-ton fuselage to help create a state-of-the-art load-training facility for the Army’s logistics soldiers. In a unique operation this week, the 170-foot-long, 25-foot-high aircraft body moved from California to Virginia. Soldiers from the 7th Sustainment Brigade at Fort Eustis used Army tugboats to push the wingless fuselage onto a floating military causeway and bought it up the Appomattox River.

The Virginia Department of Transportation says drivers should expect periodic road closures and delays tonight on Temple Avenue and Oaklawn Boulevard in the Fort Lee area because of the delivery of a huge C-17 cargo aircraft fuselage that will be used for training.

Fort Lee officials last night answered questions about a controversial plan to build a 1,000-room lodging facility on the Army post. At a public meeting in Petersburg, installation officials addressed the environmental impacts of the project in one-on-one conversations with area residents, local government officials and hoteliers. The proposed lodging facility, estimated to cost the Army $118 million if approved and built, would become the largest lodging facility in the greater Richmond area.

Fort Lee officials will hold a public meeting today in Petersburg to give area residents an opportunity to comment on the proposed construction of a 15-story hotel on the Army post. The 1,000-room lodging facility is being planned to support housing needs as the base population grows, Fort Lee officials said. But some area hotel-industry leaders and local-government officials say the proposal could hurt the local hotel industry, particularly hotels built recently to capitalize on the major business projected to come from Fort Lee.

Where: Petersburg’s Union Train Station, 103 River St.
  When: 6-8 p.m. today

The Chesterfield County School Board voted unanimously last night to collect data on students who are children of active-duty military personnel and federally employed parents. The information will be used to apply for annual grants expected to bring up to $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Education’s Impact Aid program. The program pays school districts for students who are children of active-duty personnel and parents living in Chesterfield and employed on any federal property in Virginia.

On the eve of Iraq’s national election in January 2005, Col. Byron Simmons lost two friends. “I worked in the embassy. . . . [It] was supposed to be a building that the rockets couldn’t get through, but there was an area in the embassy that a rocket did get through one night, about 10 yards from my office, and killed two good friends of mine,“ he said.

They wear the Army uniform and have been to combat operations. They are also beauty queens. Eight women from across the country, including the 2005 Ms. Virginia America, are featured in an exhibit opening today at the U.S. Army Women’s Museum at Fort Lee. Five of them will be at the museum today. Their beauty and femininity have led them to be pageant titleholders, but they have also won numerous awards for service to their country. Some have been through multiple deployments, including to Iraq and Afghanistan. One of them received a Purple Heart for injuries during a battle in Najaf, Iraq, in 2004.

Jeannie Deakyne: Mrs. Texas International 2005 and Mrs. U.S. Beauties 2008, assigned as a battalion executive officer and assistant professor of military science at the University of Texas at Arlington, 11 years of service.
  Theresa Flannery: Miss Teen Madison County in 1991, awarded a Purple Heart for her actions during a battle in Najaf, Iraq, in 2004, currently an ER technician, eight years of service.

The Virginia American Water treatment plant in Hopewell will undergo a $24 million upgrade over the next two years, which will result in a significant expansion of its water capacity. The improvement project, which is expected to create about 100 jobs in the city, will increase the plant’s total water-treatment capacity from its current 27 million gallons a day to 36 million gallons a day.

PETERSBURG—A rundown portion of state Route 36 connecting the city with Fort Lee could be the next area up for revitalization. City leaders and residents yesterday discussed a recent study that found the corridor’s location is potentially attractive for redevelopment and recommends mixed-used development that would complement continuing growth and expansion at Fort Lee.