Fort Meade

At first, the soldier's behavior was puzzling. He appeared to be having hallucinations. He was anxious. He became belligerent. A drug test identified the problem: The young man had become the latest service member at Fort Meade to experience an adverse reaction to synthetic marijuana. Commanders at the Army base in Anne Arundel County, home to the National Security Agency, the U.S. Cyber Command and other sensitive activities, are cracking down on cheap, widely available and dangerous marijuana substitutes that have been linked nationally to suicides and homicides.

Navy Rear Adm. Margaret Klein, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, will headline the BWI Business Partnership's Signature Breakfast, Wednesday, Jan. 16, from 7:45 to 9:15 a.m., at the Hotel at Arundel Preserve, 7795 Arundel Mills Blvd., in Hanover. The Cyber Command's critical mission is to plan, coordinate, integrate, synchronize and direct activities to operate and defend Department of Defense networks. A graduate of the Naval Academy, Klein directs the staff who operate and defend these networks.

Construction is beginning on a $72 million garden-style apartment complex on the grounds of Fort Meade. The 14-unit building is a first for the base and the Army, according to the developer, Picerne Military Housing. It will house more than 1,400 unmarried service men and women who are currently stationed at the base. The Army is developing the housing in a public-private partnership with Picerne. Known as Reece Crossings, the complex will boast 432 one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Aberdeen Proving Ground has a lot more money to spend on contracts than it once did but not as much as in the very recent past. Such is the push-pull effect of new funding from the military's national base realignment and closure effort, coupled with tighter federal budgets and less wartime spending. The Army post in Harford County obligated $15.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended in September. That's up $12 billion from 2005, the year the BRAC changes were announced, but down nearly $2 billion from 2011.

Construction is expected to begin this month on a $72 million, 14-building apartment complex at Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County. The complex, which is being built by Picerne Military Housing and will be called Reece Crossings, should be completed by the end of next year. It is intended for unaccompanied, junior service members from all branches of the military, according to a statement this week from Corvias Group, the parent company of Picerne Military Housing. “These apartments are not something we could build on our own with our dwindling resources,” said Col. Edward C. Rothstein, garrison commander at Fort Meade, in the statement.

The former commander of the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., told a military court on Tuesday that accused WikiLeaker Bradley Manning was held in highly restrictive "prevention-of-injury" custody even though psychiatrists recommended the conditions be eased. Retired Marine Col. Daniel J. Choike told the court at Fort Meade that he agreed with the staff of the brig at Quantico that Manning should be kept on prevention-of-injury status based on his history, the seriousness of the charges against him and what he called his "erratic behavior.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is due back at Fort Meade this week, where lawyers for the alleged WikiLeaker plan to argue that he was punished at a military brig before his case had been heard — grounds, they say, to dismiss all charges against him. By the time he arrived at the Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Va., Manning was world famous. The former intelligence analyst, who lived in Maryland before enlisting in the Army, had been accused of giving hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

Courtney Stewart didn't believe the reunion was truly going to happen until she caught sight of the medical airplane on the tarmac outside Atlanta, readying for the transport of her two small twins to Baltimore. "It was surreal," Stewart, 29, recalled Wednesday. Her husband, Pfc. Mark Stewart, has been stationed at Fort Meade since August, keeping him away from his wife and their fragile, premature twins. "It wasn't until we saw the transport team come in, and we got in the ambulance and we saw the airplane, that I believed it was real.

Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr. and Charles Shyab both earned the Bronze Star for their valor in battle, but neither soldier collected his medal. At a recent ceremony at Fort Meade, the two veterans, who served in battles more than two decades apart, stood together and received the Bronze Star, awarded for valor and meritorious service. Officials also awarded each a congressional citation and an American flag that has flown over the Capitol against a background of plaudits from a U.S. senator, Army officers and a roomful of young soldiers.

Fort Meade's rapid growth in the past few years has made it the state's largest employer, but getting a foot in the door — or, rather, inside the guarded fence line — can be daunting. Many of the Army installation's 56,000 jobs require a security clearance. And though it's one base, Fort Meade contains 95 employers, including the National Security Agency and the Environmental Protection Agency. When local officials held an event last week to demystify Fort Meade hiring, 300 people showed up, armed with notebooks and resumes.