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The company providing security to Super Bowl Live, a nightly fan event in Minneapolis connected to Sunday’s NFL championship game, has been replaced because of insufficient background checks on its employees, according to a published report. EPG Security Group, based in Minneapolis, had been left shorthanded after several of its employees were “yanked away” by federal authorities, a Minneapolis police lieutenant told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. One security guard on duty at the event turned out to be a convicted felon, Lt. Bob Kroll told the newspaper, and then federal agents “did checks on other guys." The Super Bowl Host Committee...

FORT HUACHUCA — Protecting deployed American forces is a concern of military leaders. Attacks on Combat Operating Bases, Forward Operating Bases and other installations have led to deaths and wounding of U.S. and allied forces within encampments in remote areas, such as in Afghanistan. But now the Army is containerizing weapons which can be directed by a battle captain in a centralized command post where weapons can be fired remotely, limiting the use of human forces and therefore casualties from direct combat. For the past few weeks, the Army Electronic Proving Ground with a special team from the Redstone Arsenal...

FORT HUACHUCA — Without equivocation, Maj. Gen. Peter D. Utley said, “EPG is not closing.” For some time there has been rumors involving the potential closing of the Electronic Proving Ground, heightened by Department of Defense officials noting the military is being reduced in size. However, Utley, who heads the Army Test and Evaluation Command to which EPG is subordinate, talked about the post high-tech organization Tuesday during EPG’s 60th anniversary. At the Antenna Test Facility, where he participated in the ribbon cutting for the new Small Arc Range, the general talked with the Herald/Review after the ceremony. “The Department...

FORT HUACHUCA — The Electronic Proving Ground “plays a key role,” in the Army, said Maj. Gen. Peter D. Utley. And it has done so for “60 years of test excellence” since its establishment, which led to the reopening of Fort Huachuca in 1954. Utley, who heads the Army Test and Evaluation Command, spoke at two ceremonies involving the anniversary, one in the morning, which included a cake cutting, and another during an afternoon ribbon cutting for the Small Arc Range. “We have come a long, long way from when I was a brand new second lieutenant in 1982,” he...

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a two-day series involving the commander of the Army Electronic Proving Ground on Fort Huachuca. FORT HUACHUCA — When it comes to Army testing at this southern Arizona Army post there’s a fortunate nexus in having a proving ground and schoolhouse on the same installation, said Col. Raymond Compton, the commander of the Electronic Proving Ground. “This is the only proving ground that has a resident Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) schoolhouse on the same installation, the only one,” Compton said Wednesday during an interview with the Herald/Review. By having soldiers who are...

We all probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the opening of the Electronic Proving Ground and the re-activation of Fort Huachuca this month in 1954. The EPG was the beginning of a synergy that has since evolved into the U.S. Army's premier proving, training and testing installation, otherwise known as Fort Huachuca. From its humble beginnings, EPG came about because of the pristine electromagnetic environment in the San Pedro Valley. And as technology advanced, the need for testing this equipment came hand in hand. Nowadays, EPG staff test everything from Tomahawk missiles to radio transmissions emitted from an...

FORT HUACHUCA - A new high-technology life began for this Southeastern Arizona Army post when the Electronic Proving Ground came here and re-activated the fort on Feb. 1, 1954. A half-century later, much of the post's missions are in the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, the military's C4ISR arena. EPG is still the major leader in the testing and developing of critical systems for the Army and all of the nation's armed services. Col. Jerome Payne sits at the EPG's helm. And he is the only soldier now with the organization, that includes 130 civil service employees...