Aberdeen Proving Ground

St. John Properties said Tuesday that it will break ground in the second quarter on The Village Center at The GATE, a 78,000-square-foot shopping complex at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The center will be part of The Government and Technology Enterprise development at the military base in Harford County. St. John also is building 135,000 square feet of office space as part of the development in addition to 110,000 square feet of office space it already built. - Andrea K. Walker

Aberdeen Proving Ground will celebrate Armed Forces Week with a variety of events including a golf tournament, veterans luncheon, and a museum open house. The celebration will be held Monday through Saturday, according to the APG Public Affairs Office, but most events will be concentrated on Wednesday when school bands will play, veterans will be honored and the APG will have an open house showing the public what goes on at the military facility. The public is invited. For more information about the events, call 410-278-4500.

Telford Aviation, Inc., a division of ACC Holding, Inc., has executed a lease with St. John Properties, Inc. for 11,160 square feet at The Government and Technology Enterprise, also known as The GATE, project, a 416-acre business community within Aberdeen Proving Ground. According to a news release from the developer of The GATE, Milwaukee-based Telford will consolidate program management, training and technical staff at the Aberdeen Proving Ground location. Telford Aviation Inc. specializes in supporting deployment of government C4ISR programs with contractor logistics support, aircraft maintenance, primary mission equipment maintenance, contractor flight operations and PME training.

Rudolph James "Rudy" Redd Sr., an engineer who spent his nearly 40-year career with the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground and was an advocate for the mentally ill, died April 27 of a cardiac arrest at his home in the Versailles Apartments in Towson. He was 88. Mr. Redd was born in Charlottesville, Va. After the death of his mother when he was very young, he moved to a home on Druid Hill Avenue, where he was raised by Irene Scott, a close friend of his mother's.

Four employees at Aberdeen Test Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground have received the Army's Award for Valor for their quick response to a fatal fire in May 2009 on the Harford County post. Three others received commander's awards, and one defense contractor employee was given a memorandum of appreciation. Maj. Gen. Genaro Dellarocco, commander of the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, presented the awards Thursday to Christopher Raab, Kevin Banigan, Philip Sibley Jr. and Michael Williams.

Aberdeen Proving Ground police were alerted to a suspicious person possibly carrying a rifle Wednesday morning, although further investigation revealed the person was not armed and was legitimately working on the federal installation. Two APG employees reported a suspicious person possibly carrying a rifle walking in the post's Edgewood Area at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, according to a statement from the post public affairs office. APG law enforcement personnel investigated, questioned the person and cleared the environmental contract employee after he was confirmed to be carrying a stick while surveying the area, according to the statement.

Aberdeen Proving Ground will celebrate Armed Forces Week with a variety of events including a golf tournament, veterans luncheon, and a museum open house. The celebration will be held Monday through Saturday, according to the APG Public Affairs Office, but most events will be concentrated on Wednesday when school bands will play, veterans will be honored and the APG will have an open house showing the public what goes on at the military facility. The public is invited. For more information about the events, call 410-278-4500.

When word came down that U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta wants to do another BRAC, the comment was greeted with measured enthusiasm at the Harford County Development Advisory Board meeting last week. By and large, optimism was expressed that follows the line because Aberdeen Proving Ground has a lot of territory relative to the size of the area occupied by buildings, the post is a prime destination spot for various military components that end up being relocated and consolidated from elsewhere in the country.

Winifred "Wink" Jonas remembered her initial encounter with the world's first computer. She had taken a mathematician job at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1946 and was soon promoted to programmer for the ENIAC — Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The astounding machine had taken eight months to assemble, weighed 30 tons and took up an entire room. "I have never been intimidated in my life by anything or anybody," Jonas said in her Southern drawl. "And I certainly wasn't intimidated by a computer, even though it filled a whole room.

St. John Properties said Tuesday that it will break ground in the second quarter on The Village Center at The GATE, a 78,000-square-foot shopping complex at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The center will be part of The Government and Technology Enterprise development at the military base in Harford County. St. John is also building 135,00 square feet of office space as part of the development, which will be in addition to the 110,000 square feet of office space it has already built.

A pit bull dog was shot and killed in Aberdeen Sunday evening, according to the city's police department. At about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Aberdeen city police officers were dispatched to the first block of Liberty Street, along the border of Aberdeen Proving Ground, to investigate the report of a dog being shot. Arriving officers found a dead pit bull terrier suffering from a gunshot wound to head. People living nearby heard the dog barking and then a single gunshot. When the they ran outside, they found the dog but no one was in the area, according to the police department.

A 20-year-old Aberdeen man who was critically injured Saturday night as he walked along westbound Route 22, died Sunday, according to Aberdeen police. At about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Aberdeen police officers responded to westbound Route 22 just west of Middleton Road to investigate reports of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. Arriving officers found Phillip P. Gaskill, 20, of the 400 block of Law Street in Aberdeen, suffering from serious head injuries. A 2004 Volvo driven by Oxana Keck, of Aberdeen Proving Ground, had struck Mr. Gaskill just west of the Middleton Road intersection.

Winifred "Wink" Jonas remembered her initial encounter with the world's first computer. She had taken a mathematician job at Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1946 and was soon promoted to programmer for the ENIAC — Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The astounding machine had taken eight months to assemble, weighed 30 tons and took up an entire room. "I have never been intimidated in my life by anything or anybody," Jonas said in her Southern drawl. "And I certainly wasn't intimidated by a computer, even though it filled a whole room.

St. John Properties, Inc. has initiated construction on 6190 Guardian Gateway, a new three-story, 75,000 square foot Class "A" office building located within The Government and Technology Enterprise project, a 416-acre business community located inside Aberdeen Proving Ground. Upon the building's completion this November, St. John Properties will have completed ten office and research and development buildings within the past three years, totaling more than 625,000 square feet of space, the developer said in a news release earlier this week.

When word came down that U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta wants to do another BRAC, the comment was greeted with measured enthusiasm at the Harford County Development Advisory Board meeting last week. By and large, optimism was expressed that follows the line because Aberdeen Proving Ground has a lot of territory relative to the size of the area occupied by buildings, the post is a prime destination spot for various military components that end up being relocated and consolidated from elsewhere in the country.

The general officer who became the face of BRAC at Aberdeen Proving Ground and around Harford County over the past two and a half years relinquished command of theU.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command during a change of responsibility ceremony on post Friday morning. Maj. General Nick Justice turned over leadership of RDECOM to a civilian, Dale E. Ormond, who will have the title of RDECOM director. All the seats in the APG Post Theater were full for the ceremony which marked a milestone in the history of APG and in the career of Justice, who is retiring after 42 years of service in the Army.

An unannounced test yesterday at Aberdeen Proving Ground sent dozens of Harford County residents scrambling to call 911 after noise from the sizable explosion rumbled across neighborhoods from Aberdeen to Bel Air. "People have a heightened sensitivity because of terrorist activities," said APG spokesman George Mercer. "They heard this and said, `Oh, my God, something bad is happening.'" Emergency dispatchers in Hickory, Bel Air, Aberdeen, Edgewood, Havre de Grace and on the proving ground were flooded with calls, they said, with at least 50, Mercer said.

Earl C. "Sonny" Kammerer, who owned two restaurants in Aberdeen and later worked for Blind Industries and Services of Maryland, died Saturday of complications from diabetes and pneumonia at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The Cockeysville resident was 88. The son of an Edgewood Arsenal security guard and a homemaker, Earl Carville Kammerer was born and raised in Aberdeen. After graduating in 1941 from Aberdeen High School, he worked during World War II at the Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Two lead organizations at Aberdeen Proving Ground will be changing their commands later this week. Maj. Gen. Robert S. Ferrell will take command of theU.S. ArmyCommunications-Electronics Command in a ceremony Thursday at 10 a.m. in the Myer Auditorium at the C4ISR Center of Excellence campus at APG. Then on Friday, theU.S. ArmyResearch, Development and Engineering Command will conduct a change of responsibility ceremony that will transfer the organization's leadership from a two-star general to an Army civilian executive.