National Guard firefighters to stay in Springfield
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Printable FormatAssociated Press By DENNIS CONRAD
WASHINGTON - A firefighting unit connected with the Illinois National Guard's 183rd Fighter Wing in Springfield, Ill., will stay there for at least another year, lawmakers said Tuesday.
That's despite a plan that called for the unit's permanent withdrawal from the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport any day now.
The one-year extension will be granted through September 2009, Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Barack Obama said from the Democratic National Convention in Denver, citing Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum of the National Guard Bureau.
The firefighting unit and its estimated 20 personnel at the airport will stay because of a backlog of maintenance on the Air National Guard's F-16 fleet that requires the presence of a firefighting crew, Blum told the senators in a letter.
"My staff informs me that the Air National Guard's F-16 fleet has a backlog of phase maintenance that is required to keep our fleet, the oldest F-16's in the Air Force, viable and flying," he wrote. "The wing and maintenance Commander at the 183rd volunteered to perform this much needed capability through the summer of next year."
Blum also said the Pentagon's Air Force leadership will make the ultimate decision on the 183rd's planned move to Fort Wayne, Ind. Durbin and Obama have asked that the 183rd get a new flying mission that would keep it permanently in Springfield, rather than a planned gradual redeployment to Indiana.
"It is important to understand, however, that this deliberation will be made in the context of decisions already made under the 2005 BRAC and current budget realities." Blum said.
Durbin, the Senate's second highest ranking Democrat, has already brought up the need for a new flying mission with Acting Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley and Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, the recently confirmed Air Force chief of staff.
A federal judge in June dismissed Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's lawsuit that tried to keep the Pentagon from relocating 15 Guard jets from Springfield.
The national 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended, over the objections of the Illinois congressional delegation, that the Guard's decades-long presence in Springfield end.