Page 19 - Port of Baltimore - Issue 5 - 2024

Our partnership with the Port of Baltimore and the
Maryland Port Administration couldn’t be stronger.
We share a common set of beliefs that we exist to serve
the people of the region.” – Col. Francis Pera, USACE Baltimore District
‘A Jewel in
USACE’s Crown’
Despite Pera’s significant experience, he has stepped
into his Baltimore District leadership role with a sense
of excitement and pride.
“Baltimore District really is a jewel in USACE’s
crown,” he said. “The operational reach of the
district is unparalleled for the most part. We cover
six different states for Military Construction and Civil
Works, including Washington, DC. On any given day,
teammates from the Baltimore District are impacting
projects of historical, environmental or national
significance. In addition to the work that we did as
part of the Unified Command for the bridge response,
we have personnel operating 15 different reservoir
projects that stem from the northeast tip of West
Virginia all the way to the southern tip of New York.
We operate 11 recreation projects that have over 15
million people annually attending those locations.”
Pera also noted that USACE Baltimore District is
responsible for the Washington Aqueduct, one of the
oldest water suppliers in the country, which provides
150 million gallons of drinking water every single day.
“And when you look at what we’re doing in the
waters in the local area, we’ve restored over 1,700
acres of habitat. We’re maintaining over 290 miles
of federal channels,” he said. “Those are the sort of
things you really only see in the Baltimore District.”
Cooperation, Trust
and Commitment
With such complex tasks, challenges are inevitable,
but “we have a phenomenal team that’s out there
every single day trying to keep us moving in the right
direction,” Pera said.
So far, each day of leading the Baltimore District
has been filled with new surprises and tasks, but
“my primary responsibility is to set the purpose and
direction of the district,” he said. “We’ve got a team
of over 1,100 personnel and I have to make sure
the resources and partnerships required for them to
perform their work are in place.”
Speaking of partnerships, Pera noted that “our
partnership with the Port of Baltimore and the
Maryland Port Administration couldn’t be stronger.
We share a common set of beliefs that we exist to
serve the people of the region. The Francis Scott
Key Bridge collapse put our relationship front and
center in the eyes of the media, but the reality is that
we’ve had a long history of cooperation, trust and
commitment between our organizations.”
Learn more about the
USACE Baltimore District at
www.nab.usace.army.mil.
NATO Staff Engineer Officer, Balkans
and Engineer Targeting Officer for
Joint Forces Command – Naples, Italy
Commandant of the U.S. Army
Prime Power School –
249th Engineer Battalion
Commander – USACE
Baltimore District
Regimental Engineer –
75th Ranger Regiment
Executive Officer for
Director of Program Analysis
and Evaluation, G-8
Executive Officer to the U.S. Army Chief
of Engineers and Commanding General
of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
To subscribe or renew, visit www.marylandports.com [17]