The story
The Defense Media Activity can trace its organizational lineage to the first publication of the Stars and Stripes newspaper produced by Union soldiers during the Civil War in 1861. It also traces its lineage to the Armed Forces Network (AFN) radio first broadcast in London in July 1943 with borrowed equipment. In the early 1970s, AFN took over Air Force Television in Ramstein, Germany and became AFRTS. Beginning in 1980, the Army Broadcasting Service (ABS) took over managing Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) providing radio and television in Europe, Korea, Honduras and the Marshall Islands until 2005. In November 2006, The Army Soldiers Media Center (SMC) was created and took control of AFRTS,Soldier's Magazine, and other army related media.
Base Realignment and Closure 2005
In 2005, as part of the Base Realignment and Closure 2005 analysis, the Defense Department recommended consolidating the media-related organizations of the Military Departments into a single organization and co-locating it with the American Forces Information Service (an existing DoD field activity). The Defense Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission accepted the DoD recommendation and included the recommendation in its report to the president. On 8 September 2005, the president approved the BRAC Commission recommendations and forwarded them to the United States Congress. On 20 September 2005, the U.S. Congress failed to disapprove of the BRAC Commission's recommendations. Under the provisions of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1990 (Public Law 101–510), the recommendations were effectively "approved".
The approved BRAC actions were to:
Realign Fort Belvoir, Virginia, by relocating Soldiers Magazine to Fort Meade, Maryland.
Realign Anacostia Annex, District of Columbia, by relocating the Naval Media Center to Fort Meade, Maryland.
Realign 2320 Mill Road, a leased installation in Alexandria, Virginia, by relocating Army Broadcasting-Soldier Radio/TV to Fort Meade, Maryland.
Realign 103 Norton Street, a leased installation in San Antonio, Texas by relocating the Air Force News Agency and the Joint Hometown News Service to Fort Meade, Maryland.
Close 601 North Fairfax Street, a leased installation in Alexandria, Virginia, by relocating the American Forces Information Service and the Army Broadcasting-Soldier Radio/TV to Fort Meade, Maryland.
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Consolidate Soldier Magazine, Naval Media Center, Army Broadcasting-Soldier Radio/TV, the Soldier's Media Center and the Air Force News Agency-Army/Air Force Hometown News Service into a single DoD Media Activity at Fort Meade, Maryland.
Establishment
In September 2007, the deputy defense secretary recognized that the BRAC 2005 decision would result in two field activities co-located at Fort Meade – the American Forces Information Service and DMA – and directed several actions.
Consolidate the American Forces Information Service with DMA.
Include the internal media elements of the U.S. Marine Corps that were not addressed in the BRAC 2005 decision.
Establish DMA on 1 January 2008.
Transfer the funds and people from the legacy organizations to DMA on 1 October 2009.
DMA's chartering directive, DoD Directive 5105.74, Defense Media Activity, was published on 18 December 2007.
DMA was formally established on 1 January 2008, and the people and funding from the predecessor organizations were transferred to DMA on 1 October 2008. The elements required to move to Fort Meade by the BRAC 2005 decision remained in their facilities as their facility at Fort Meade was designed and constructed. The building design was completed in September 2008.
On 13 March 2009, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, awarded a $56,195,000 contract to Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Chantilly, Virginia, to construct DMA's headquarters and media production center in Fort Meade, Maryland. The 185,870 square-foot facility was built to house approximately 660 personnel and was completed in May 2011. The move was completed in August 2011. DMA elements located in the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Tobyhanna Army Depot, Riverside, California, and all overseas locations remained in place.
From Wikipedia’s article on Defense Media Activity, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3