By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
An extra $220 million dollars has been added to the National Defense Authorization Act by the House Armed Services Committee, enough money for two additional C-130J planes.
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves sponsored the amendment, hoping those new, modern cargo planes go to the Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing based as Rosecrans Memorial Airport.
“In the base text of the bill, there was no new money for C-130Js. And so, I did offer an amendment to pull two in,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Hopefully, those are going to end up in St. Joe. I’m doing everything I can to see those end in St. Joe and our folks out at the 139th Airlift Wing are doing everything that they can.”
The Missouri General Assembly allocated $7 1/2 million for the design and construction of an aircraft maintenance facility for the 139th as well as $4 million for a fuel station at Rosecrans. St. Joseph city and Buchanan County officials have contributed money to make improvements at Rosecrans.
Graves says such contributions make an impression on Washington.
“The Pentagon will see that there’s a lot of support behind this,” Graves says. “They are not the only ones that are going to be putting money behind improving the base and making sure that it is state-of-art and has everything that the Defense Department needs in that facility. Everything helps. Everybody’s pulling together.”
A new main runway has been constructed at Rosecrans. Construction is underway to build a new terminal and air traffic control tower at the St. Joseph airport. The old tower is outdated and doesn’t meet National Air Guard standards.
Landing the C130J model cargo plane is seen as vital to the 139th Airlift Wing’s future in St. Joseph. The modern planes would replace the fleet of C-13oH planes now at the 139th base. Graves says Rosecrans barely missed the cut for receiving the new planes during the first allocation by the Secretary of the Air Force and Director of the Air National Guard and likely remains a top base for consideration of the new aircraft.
Graves is pleased the entire Missouri Congressional delegation has come together to push for the 139th to get the new planes and has been joined by city, county, and state officials to pour money into improvements at Rosecrans.
“I think that we can make the case and we’re going to continue to push and this fight, it’s not over,” according to Graves. “We’re just going to keep working it and working it and working it until we achieve what we’re trying to achieve.”
Graves says everyone is working off the checklist provided by the Pentagon that disclosed deficiencies that need to be addressed at Rosecrans for the 139th to be awarded the new version of the C-130 cargo planes.
The 139th not only flies the C-130 cargo planes on missions throughout the world, it also trains pilots from throughout the world. The Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center at Rosecrans trains C-130 pilots from throughout the United States as well as pilots from America’s allies, especially members of NATO.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.