Jacksonville one of communities picked for study on deployment impacts

Jacksonville one of communities picked for study on deployment impacts
May 20, 2012
AMANDA WILCOX

DAILY NEWS STAFF

Jacksonville has been selected to be part of a national study on the effects of multiple deployments on communities with large military populations.

Jacksonville, home to the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast, joins El Paso, Texas, and Lacey and Lakewood, Wash., in the Congress-mandated study titled, “How Communities with Large Military Populations are Affected by Deployment.”

A Maryland research company hired by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences was in Jacksonville from April 18 – 24 collecting research.

Christine Stencel, media relations officer at the Institute of Medicine, said that researchers wanted to get a sense of what potential effects there have been on the Jacksonville community due to multiple deployments.

As part of the study, the team interviewed the fire and police departments and local business leaders. Stencel was unable to comment on which businesses or departments the research team spoke to while in Jacksonville due to a confidentiality agreement.

Camp Lejeune spokesman 2nd Lt. Philip Kulczewski said there are currently about 5,500 Lejeune Marines deployed directly to Afghanistan, and another 3,900 deployed around the world in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
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