European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 10, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday August 10, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 9 Navy seeks a new life in Naples consolidation of facilities prime target by Gary Miller Mediterranean Bureau Naples Italy a Navy officials Hope construction of three new . Buildings at Naples Cap Dichino Airport May be the beginning of a full fledged . Military base a something that has never really existed in the Southern italian port. Its part of the Navy a plans to both consolidate its far Flung facilities for the Naples naval support activity a 96 tenant commands and build a separate support site for 1,000 housing units schools a recreation Center and Exchange among other facilities. Mainly an administrative and command and control Center the activity supports the nearby Headquarters of natos Allied forces Southern Europe 6th Fleet Headquarters in Gaeta about 50 Miles North of Naples and ships assigned to the 6th Fleet that pull into Naples for port visits. Activity organizations Are now housed a amps Gay Miller a support pile is pulled into place at the site of a new Barracks at the Naples naval support activity detachment at Cap Dichino Airport. 4. A a. A volcanic Crater a is Home to the main in More than 100 buildings at 11 different Navy Exchange and commissary Sites throughout Naples a City of about 3 3 a million inhabitants. Most units to move a separate command. Gently discovered a the facilities to be centralized at the sin route to the Airport Gle support site Are strewn across a wide a a it a a couple Miles longer but i avoid area. A compound in Agnano a six Miles the tunnels traffic and the tolls a Rcd from downtown Naples and situated within Dinger said of the alternate route. A a but anyone wanting to Stop at Agnano to new buildings at Cap Dichino will be those now housed in Agnano six Miles from downtown Naples and Home Tonsay a Headquarters and several operational commands. A say a Cap Dichino detachment facilities consist of an air terminal aviation maintenance facilities the activity a main Supply building Barracks and some recreation facilities until the mid-1970s, the detachment had been a naval air facility the Navy Hospital is in a separate area of Agnano. And government quarters Are now at pin Tamare on the tyrrhenian coast about 18 Miles Northwest of Agnano and about 28 Miles from Cap Dichino. Petty officer 1st class Debra Reddinger gives on the Economy in the pin Tamare area about a mile closer to Cap Dichino than government quarters. Reddinger a meteorological technician assigned to the naval oceanography come det Naples at Cap Dichino re on the Way to shop or conduct business that can to be done at the Cap Dichino detachment must take the Shorter but heavily trafficked toll Road and because newly completed pct our people to work or live in a Lancaster said in an interview published in the june Issue of military club and hospitality Magazine. After visiting Naples last year Lancaster suggested the Navy consolidate its presence in Italy at Comiso the former cruise missile site that closed earlier this year. A House armed services committee of the Stop at Agnano pay two tolls total staff member said a people think Comiso ing More than $1, Reddinger said. A a a a a he using the Hill Road from pin Tamare to the Airport can take from 35 minutes to More than an hour depending on traffic she said. Once the support site planned North of Naples a is completed Navy officials Hope service members will be spared much of the City a traffic problems. A basically All the support facilities we _. Have Here at Agnano and out at Pineta solicit bids to build the new support site is the answer until they try to get there its about 40 Miles from nowhere on narrow twisting roads that Are full of hairpin curves. It sounds Good but its just not  As far As Naples value to the Navy the staffer said the port facility serves As a centralized Supply Point for outlying Sites such As la Maddalena. The staff member said the Navy will a amps Sharon Kilday Mare would move to that support site so that we would end up with a base in Naples which we have never had before Quot said capt. James r. Glover Asa commander. During fiscal years 1989 and 1990, Congress allocated about $64 million for numerous projects at Cap Dichino that currently Are in All stages of construction a a command control communications and intelligence Center. A an administration building. A an 800-car parking garage. A a Supply building which has been completed. A a new Barracks. A a building to House firefighting and Security operations. But How far Naples consolidation project will be allowed to proceed is undecided. Some members of Congress such As rep. Martin Lancaster d-n.c., believe the Navy should pull out of Naples. A nothing absolutely nothing is adequate in Naples. Its unbelievable. I did not see one thing in Naples that i thought met the standards we should sex which will be built on a lease construct basis rather than with military construction funds. That Means the United states will give plans and specifications to an italian contractor who than builds the site to Navy plans. The contractor or his investor owns the site. The United states then leases the buildings. A proposal for the site has not been released. Navy officials project it could be ready for move in in 1995 or 1996. The Navy has unofficially looked at six or seven locations for the support site. Officials Are looking for an area of 200 to 400 acres Glover said. A the Navy is supposedly looking at a site somewhere Between Gaeta and Naples a the staff member said adding that moving and consolidating the . Support facilities should help alleviate the crime and other problems that plague americans in the areas where they live. A a it a a bad situation and we re trying to make it  also contributing to this report was staff Waltor Chuck Vinch in Washington construction s horizon includes Active Volcano by Gary Miller Mediterranean Bureau Naples Italy a by moving most of its operational units to Cap Dichino Airport the Naples naval sup Dort activity slips 10 Miles deeper into the Shadow of Vesuvius an Active Volcano. A Vesuvius is very similar to mount Pinatubo a said Armando Mauro a geologist assigned to the Vesuvius Observatory in comparing the italian Volcano to the one in the Philippines that erupted in june. Both volcanoes Are potentially explosive said Mauro who is responsible for several . Projects at the Observatory. While Pinatubo had not erupted in 600 years Vesuvius has erupted nine times in the past 224 years the last time in 1944. However Mauro said a no signs no parameters that we study indicate that Vesuvius will erupt anytime  damage from Vesuvius eruptions have not seriously damaged the Cap Dichino area Mauro said but the Region has experienced Ash Falls. He could not say How much Ash would be produced and where it would land if a future eruption occurred. Tons of Ash from mount Pinatubo fell on Clark a Long considered crucial to . Interests in the Pacific Region and has apparently curtailed use of the base permanently. The Naples naval support activity a main compound is now located in the Crater of a Volcano. Agnano in Naples outskirts is Home to the activity a Headquarters the main Navy Exchange a commissary and a Navy Hospital. The buildings at the Agnano compound leased from italian landlords were built before Italy updated its seismic building codes and have been damaged by seismic activity. They probably could not withstand the earthquakes and other seismic activity that can occur in the area according to the activity a command newspaper Panorama. According to the Panorama there is no volcanic activity in the Cap Dichino area and the likelihood of earthquake damage would be decreased since the proposed buildings would be constructed under the latest seismic resistant standards