By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt questions Air Force brass about why the Air National Guard 139th Airlift Wing in St. Joseph has not received modernized cargo planes.
During a hearing in Washington, Schmitt tells the Air Force Chief of Staff, David Allvin, Jr., he cannot understand how the 139th can train foreign pilots on the new aircraft, yet still has a fleet of outdated planes.
“They do the training for the C130Js, but do not have the C130Js,” Schmitt tells Air Force officers during the hearing. “I’m not going to put you on the spot right now on this, but we thought it was going to happen this go around. Will you commit to working with me to make sure that we land that plane?”
The 139th is home to the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center, which trains U.S. and NATO pilots on the latest technology. The Air Force awarded the new planes – the C130J model – to a Wyoming Air Guard base, again passing over the St. Joseph Air Guard based at Rosecrans Memorial Airport.
While Schmitt tells Allvin he thought the 139th was in line for the next allocation of C130J planes, Allvin tells Schmitt he can only promise to detail where the base competes well and where it doesn’t in getting new planes.
“That’s what we try to do with all of these when we go from the enterprise definition to the candidate location to the preferred location, to be able to understand where some of those discriminators were and give you a sense of, hey, if there’s something that might make this particular location more competitive next time around, this is where it might be. I think we owe you that and we’ll certainly be happy to do that,” Allvin replies during the hearing.
“Well, I look forward to doing that, again,” Schmitt tells Alvin, “Because we took those comments to heart and I think addressed those issues, but we’ll continue to work with you.”
St. Joseph officials have stated that getting the upgraded C130J model would insure the longevity of the 139th Airlift Wing at Rosecrans. The 139th flies the C130H model.
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