Demolition of Keith Hall barracks will continue through summer

The life of a five-story Marine barracks on Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall is swiftly coming to an end.

The existence of Keith Hall, a bachelor’s enlisted quarters on the Henderson Hall side of JBM-HH, will be cut in half by the middle of June and completely brought to the ground by the end of the summer.

Demolition workers from Arlington’s Corinthian Contractors, Inc., are in the process of demolishing the north and south towers of the BEQ which was constructed in 1982 and consisted of 258 two-man rooms, a dining facility, armory and a two-level, 100-space underground parking garage.

“Currently, the north tower is in the process of vertical demolition,” said S-4A Logistics Officer Capt. Brian McCarthy of Headquarters and Service Battalion, Henderson Hall. “At no point will there be pyrotechnics, implosions or swinging wrecking balls [to demolish the building]. Basically, enlarged back hoes — an 80 foot-tall crane — will chew up the concrete. That crushed debris will be turned into fill for the site.”

According to McCarthy, the north tower will be demolished by the middle of this month, and the removal of the south tower will follow. Vertical demolition should be completed by September.

A soft strip, the removal of salvageable materials from the site, commenced in December 2011, and a communication hub has moved from Keith Hall to Bldg. 28.

“The communication hub was formally in the lower level of the parking garage,” McCarthy said. “That fed communication to all of Henderson Hall, and it routed communications to the Pentagon and also onto Fort Myer. It has since been moved from Bldg. 25, and that is operational now.”

The Marine barracks building is named after Medal of Honor recipient Lance Cpl. Miguel Keith, who was mortally wounded in 1970 while saving his platoon during a ground attack in Vietnam.