By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves expects the 139th Airlift Wing, based at Rosecrans Memorial Airport in St. Joseph, to get upgraded planes, eventually.
Graves says the announcement that the Air Force passed over the 139th in favor of four other Air National Guard bases to receive the new, C-130J is a disappointment, but not devastating.
Graves says the Rosecrans base scored well on the Air Force inspection, but fell short primarily in its fuel capacity and ramp space for the new cargo planes.
“In the short term, it’s going to take about a million and a half dollars to get those things done to have preliminary C-130Js out there,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Long term, it’s going to take about $54 million to do the big things that we need to do. So, we’re taking a good, hard look at that.”
Graves says even at $54 million, the price tag isn’t out of reach for the 139th. And Graves points out that would be enough to shore up all its shortcomings.
“That is to make it the absolute perfect and get high marks in everything,” according to Graves. “So, we’re not going to be able to achieve all of that, but we are going to do what we can to try to fix some of the things right away.”
Receiving the cargo plane upgrades, the latest C-130 model, the C-130J Super Hercules, is seen as a necessary step to insure the long-term viability of the Air National Guard 139th Airlift Wing base at Rosecrans.
Graves doesn’t perceive the air base is in jeopardy, primarily because it houses the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center. Graves even speculates the 139th might be a victim of its own success as the only center to train C-130H crews.
The Air Force has announced the next round of C-130J models will go to Air Guard bases in Connecticut, Montana, Minnesota, and Illinois.
Graves shrugs off the deficiencies found in the Air Force evaluation of the Air Guard base at Rosecrans.
“You’re not going to get perfect marks on everything,” Graves says. “Every place that was evaluated, they had deficiencies as well in other areas. But this new runway is a huge positive that’s being installed out there. This new runway is a huge plus for the base. And then, the work that we’re doing to move the base to the north end, where it’s higher and out of the flood plain, that’s a huge positive for us as well.”
Rosecrans Memorial Airport has been undergoing an overhaul with a new main runway, a new terminal, and a new air traffic control tower all expected to soon be built there.