The Military's 'Future First' Planning

"Future first planning was born in 2003 after the environmental staff at Air Combat Command, the war fighting arm of the Air Force, asked the command's Civil Engineer, Brig. Gen. Patrick Burns, to take a look at a newly capped landfill at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. He drove by the site on his way to lunch that day and immediately called his environmental staff. '[Let me get this straight,' he said. "We capped the landfill. We put up large red and white signs every 100 feet around the property saying, 'Do not enter or dig on this site.' And we're proud of that? Come and see me tomorrow to discuss how we could have a future vision for that site before we start to clean it up.' Before you knew it, future first planning emerged and the signs came down."