STATEHOUSE (Oct. 15, 2009) - Members of the Commission on Military and Veteran Affairs learned Wednesday employment projections at the Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Urban Training Center may approach the 5,000 mark by 2012.

Sen. Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne) - who chairs the committee - said the news represented yet another chapter in the remarkable story of how a former state hospital facility had been transformed into something that's now being utilized by soldiers all across the nation and even other countries throughout the world.

"I'm sorry all Hoosiers cannot see what a tremendous job the Indiana National Guard is doing at Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck," Wyss said. "Foresight of the guard has turned a facility that was destined to be demolished into what is now a world-class urban warfare training center for our military and homeland security."

During a presentation by Brigadier General Clif Tooley, committee members learned employment at the combined facilities has risen from just 100 jobs in 2001 to nearly 3,000 today. He said estimates are as many as 4,766 people could be working at the complex by 2012.

By comparison, Tooley said the two facilities combined housed just 100 jobs and had a financial impact of $9 million in 2001. Eight years later, Tooley said the financial impact is now more than $428 million, with as many as 10,000 daily users at the center.

Home to a mental hospital dating back to 1919, Wyss said the state was prepared to spend up to $35 million to tear down Muscatatuck's buildings and turn the grounds into a tree farm.

"They have taken something that used to be an expense for the state to operate and turned it into a billion dollar asset - with hundreds of millions in federal funds to be dedicated here over the next several years," Wyss said.

Among the many users of the facilities now include the Army, Air Force/Air Guard, civilian first responders Homeland Defense, Civil Air Patrol and the U.S. State Department.

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