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Gov. Blagojevich is leading a
coordinated effort with the Illinois congressional delegation, other
elected officials and local leaders to prevent Scott Air Force Base,
Air National Guard bases in Peoria and Springfield, and the Rock
Island Arsenal from ending up on the Defense Base Realignment and
Closure list. These bases contribute more than $2.5 billion to the
state's economy each year and support nearly 70,000 jobs.
"Scott Air Force Base, Rock Island
Arsenal and the Air National Guard bases in Peoria and Springfield
all play critical roles in ensuring the safety and security of our
country, while making enormous contributions to our state's
economy," said Gov. Blagojevich. "We will continue with our
coordinated campaign, working closely with House Speaker Hastert,
Senator Durbin and many others, because too much is at stake to
leave anything to chance. I am here delivering a very simple message
from Illinois. These bases not only have everything the military
requires to continue meeting its goals efficiently and effectively,
but they are all also fully capable of expanding their missions to
meet the Defense Department's changing goals and priorities."
Base Realignment and Closure is an
independent commission that evaluates the Pentagon's closure
recommendations and then develops a final list of bases to be
closed. Congress has the option to approve or reject the list as
submitted without changes. In the past round of closings,
approximately 85 percent of bases that were placed on the list were
eventually shut down. The next round of closings is scheduled to be
announced in 2005. The armed services will be submitting their
closure recommendations to the U.S. Department of Defense by year's
end.
Scott
Air Force Base
Scott Air Force Base is a major
joint command headquarters base located in St. Clair County. It is
home to the U.S. Transportation Command and the Air Mobility
Command. Scott is also home to the 18th Air Force Headquarters,
375th Airlift Wing, the 932nd Reserve Airlift Wing and the 126th Air
National Guard Refueling Wing.
The U.S. Transportation Command,
based at Scott, is the largest transportation enterprise in the
world. It was established in 1987 and is one of nine U.S. unified
commands.
The Air Mobility Command, also
headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, has the primary mission of
providing airlift, aerial refueling, special air missions and
aeromedical evacuation for all of the armed services. The Air
Mobility Command also contracts and controls the command contracts
for commercial airlifts for the Department of Defense.
Scott is centrally located with
excellent facilities that have growth capability. The construction
of MidAmerica St. Louis Airport as a joint-use facility adjacent to
the base added a new 10,000-foot runway, a parallel taxiway, and
renovated and extended Scott's runway to 8,000 feet. In addition, a
new state-of-the-art FAA traffic control tower was added as the last
link in the ability to handle more with maximum safety.
Rock
Island Arsenal
Rock Island Arsenal is the home to
four major U.S. Army headquarters organizations that have regional
and global responsibilities -- ranging from Army munitions
management to regional installation management. The arsenal also
houses more than 50 other Department of Defense organizations and
provides infrastructure support to all the organizations on the
island.
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The Army's Joint Manufacturing and
Technology Center - Rock Island has the technical expertise and
equipment to provide full-service design and prototyping,
manufacturing, and testing-simulation for a wide variety of
products, ranging from rapid response to warfighter requirements for
all of the armed services. These state-of-the-art facilities house
the only vertically integrated metal manufacturing complex for the
Department of Defense.
The arsenal is one of the world's
largest weapons manufacturing facilities. Products include gun
mounts and recoil mechanisms for artillery, spare parts, and tools,
sets, kits and outfits that support military equipment in the field.
This manufacturing mission has been called on to support
short-notice, critical items for soldiers in the field, including
armored door kits for Humvees, weapons pedestals and electronic
night sights for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The installation has a
state-of-the-art fiber-optic network that has the capacity to double
the number of users and the ability to handle twice its current
amount of traffic. Through new business avenues, the arsenal is also
partnering with some non-military entities to assist and advance
manufacturing technologies in the private sector.
Peoria
Air National Guard Base
With a 57-year history of diversity
in operations, the Peoria Air National Guard Base has demonstrated a
pivotal response to joint-multinational requirements, including its
current involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The unit's experience
and performance in ongoing airlift operations, its past experience
in fighter operations and its in-depth expertise in management and
control of tactical air assets graphically reflect the reasons for
the organization's successes and the frequent recognition received
by its members.
A major thrust of the 182nd
Airlift's mission is to provide world-class training and readiness
opportunities, not only for its own members, but for those of other
organizations and other service departments as well.
Superior existing facilities,
expansion capability, and recruiting and retention history enable
the 182nd to easily accommodate support of operations and training
for contingency, mobilization and increased future total force
requirements.
Springfield Air National Guard Base
The Springfield Air National Guard
Base provides critical support for its flying military missions,
including air-to-air, air-to-ground, air support, and search and
rescue teams. The unit also has several other crucial tasks, ranging
from engineer and communication teams to many other one-, two- or
20-person teams related to different military support missions,
security police and chaplains of several denominations.
This unit also has firefighters with
a support agreement in which the U.S. Air Force provides 100 percent
of the airport's crash fire protection for both the commercial
airport and the Air Guard.
Homeland defense is also an
important part of its portfolio because it serves as a backup for
protecting civilian commercial aircraft for Chicago, St. Louis,
Kansas City and Indianapolis.
This unit is ready for the next
generation of Air Force aircraft because the base has extra ramp
space available.
[News release] |
