Military dedicates new headquarters for nuclear control unit

The new, $1.3 billion headquarters for the command unit that controls the nation’s nuclear-armed forces has been dedicated at an Air Force Base south of Omaha.

Officers and enlisted men joined civilian dignitaries for ceremonies Monday at Offutt Air Force Base.

The facility is named the Gen. Curtis E. LeMay Building. LeMay headed what was then known as the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command until 1957 when he left to take a Pentagon post. Strategic Air Command eventually became a multiservice unit under a new name: the U.S. Strategic Command, or StratCom.

Work on the 916,000-square-foot (85,000-square-meter) command and control center began in October 2012. Contractors worked through several setbacks, including floods and persistent mold.

Around 2,000 of StratCom’s 3,200 employees have moved in.