BAUMHOLDER, Germany - Michael McAndrew, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for facilities management, visited Baumholder on May 7 during a tour through Europe visiting U.S. rotational and forward stationed forces, with an emphasis on understanding and assessing infrastructure investments and quality of life issues.

The Baumholder visit began with a briefing delivered by Col. Reid Furman, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz, and fellow garrison leaders who provided an overview of various topics influencing projected Baumholder Military Community growth efforts.

McAndrew was then given a comprehensive bus tour of the installation, focusing on family housing, construction and key infrastructure sites.

The tour highlighted the substantial progress made in the forms of completed renovations as well as ongoing construction and base improvement efforts.

Several of the new, high-quality facilities being delivered in Baumholder will serve Special Operations Forces moving to Baumholder from Stuttgart, enabling SOF in Europe, which reassures our allies and allows us to respond to threats in that region as required.

McAndrew provides executive leadership on all matters pertaining to the Department of Defense's physical infrastructure, to include development and execution of policies, guidance, and procedures for construction, operations, maintenance, and repair of DoD's worldwide facilities to enhance and preserve warfighting capabilities and to provide safe working and living conditions for our military personnel and families. His responsibilities include all matters related to real property maintenance, facility operations, and host-nation programs related to facility construction and management.

USAG Rheinland-Pfalz serves, supports, and secures the total force community enabling power projection for the European Theater.