[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 219 (Tuesday, November 14, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 66313-66314]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-19143]


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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Air Force


Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for 
the Air Education and Training Command Common Battlefield Airman 
Training Program

AGENCY: Department of the Air Force, Air Education and Training 
Command.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969 (NEPA, 42 United States Code [U.S.C.] 4321-4347), the Council on 
Environmental Quality (CEQ) NEPA Regulations (40 Code of Federal 
Regulations [CFR] Parts 1500-1508), and the United States Air Force's 
(USAF) Environmental Impact Analysis Process (EIAP, 32 CFR Part 989), 
the Air Force is preparing an EIS to consider the proposed action of 
establishing the CBAT program. This NOI describes the

[[Page 66314]]

Air Force's proposed alternatives, scoping process, and identifies the 
Air Force's point of contact. As part of the proposal, the Air Force 
will analyze potential environmental impacts associated with the 
proposed development of administrative, instructional, and living areas 
(referred to as the CBAT Campus) for CBAT students and instructors, as 
well as utilization of areas for ground training operations.
    Purpose: The purpose of this action is for AETC to establish a CBAT 
course in order to further expand ground combat skills and give all 
Airmen a baseline or common skill set. The course would be implemented 
in three Phases, beginning with Phase I, which would train 
approximately 1,353 Airmen. Phase II would add 6,365 students, and 
Phase III provides training for an additional 6,692 Airmen. Full 
implementation of CBAT would result in training approximately 14,410 
Airmen annually in combat small arms firing, basics of land navigation, 
small unit tactics, and combative skills, along with a daily physical 
training regimen. The average daily number of personnel that would be 
present for CBAT at full implementation (to include instructors, base 
support, and students) would be approximately 2,600. CBAT would be held 
year-round, with each course lasting 25 days, 10 hours per day, Monday 
through Friday. Throughout the initial implementation of each phase, 
personnel, facilities and infrastructure, and field training areas 
would be added to the selected installation. The end of Phase III would 
include a total of 166 new buildings at 124,192 square meters added to 
the installation. Additionally, by Phase III, approximately 9,000 acres 
(approximately 36.5 square km) of land would be required for CBAT field 
training in standardized basic small unit tactics, such as how to react 
to an enemy ambush (which would include the use of blank-fire 
ammunition and simulated munitions) and practical day and night land 
navigation training.
    Alternatives: The Air Force used a multi-disciplined team (e.g., 
trainers, civil engineers, environmental engineers, and attorneys) to 
develop criteria for choosing where the CBAT course would be located. 
Applying the selection criteria in stages narrowed the alternatives 
first to 64 and later to just 3 Air Force installations located within 
the Continental United States. Those 3 installations are Arnold Air 
Force Base (AFB) in Tennessee, Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, and Moody 
AFB in Georgia. These three bases and the no action alternative are the 
alternatives that will be evaluated in the EIS. There is sufficient 
area on Arnold AFB and Barksdale AFB to support the campus and field 
training areas. There is insufficient land available to support the 
field training requirements on Moody AFB, so selection of Moody would 
necessitate acquiring additional land by purchase or lease. The no 
action alternative will evaluate current conditions and trends, 
projected into the future, for comparative purposes.
    Scoping: In order to effectively define the full range of issues to 
be evaluated in the EIS, the Air Force will determine the scope of the 
document (i.e., what will be covered, and in what detail) by soliciting 
scoping comments from interested state and Federal agencies and the 
interested public via this Federal Register and notices in the local 
areas of concern. Comments should be forwarded to the address below, by 
the date indicated. The Air Force will also hold a series of scoping 
meetings to further solicit input concerning the scope of the proposed 
action and alternatives.

DATES: The scheduled dates, times, locations, and addresses for the 
scoping meetings are as follows:
    1. December 5, 2006--Tuesday, 6-8 pm; Tullahoma, TN; Coffee County 
Administrative Plaza, Community Room, 1329 MacArthur Street, 
Manchester, TN.
    2. December 7, 2006--Thursday, 6-8 pm; Valdosta, GA; Valdosta City 
Hall Annex 300 N. Lee St., Valdosta, GA.
    3. December 12, 2006--Tuesday, 6-8 pm; Shreveport, LA; Holiday Inn, 
2015 Old Minden Road, Bossier City, LA.
    No additional scoping meetings are scheduled at this time. In 
addition to comments received at the scoping meetings, any written 
comments on the scope of the EIS received at the address below by 
December 16, 2006, will be considered in the preparation of this EIS. 
All comments received through the scoping process will be evaluated and 
adjudicated to identify which issues are in fact significant and which 
ones are not. Issues that are determined to be less important will be 
addressed in the EIS by a brief discussion of why they were not 
examined in depth.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Debra Harkiewicz, HQ AETC/A7CVI, 
266 F Street West, Bldg 901, Randolph, AFB, TX 78150, (210) 652-3959.

Bao-Anh Trinh,
Air Force Federal Register Liaison Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-19143 Filed 11-13-06; 8:45 am]
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