THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 21, 1995 TAG: 9502210256
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: BASE CLOSINGS: THE FINAL ROUND
What's at stake for Hampton Roads?
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Long : 178 lines
There are fewer jet fighters at Langley Air Force Base today, fewer people and less money to go around than there were in the heyday of the military buildup in the 1980s.
But there's no less work at the nation's oldest continuously active air field, founded in 1916 as a proving ground for dirigibles and now heading toward its 80th birthday.
Squadrons of F-15 fighter jets have been pulling duty in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Somalia, Rwanda, Panama, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and now Iceland.
And they expect to see other remote duty as U.S. air wings once stationed overseas are brought home.
``Right now, we don't know what those are,'' says Brig. Gen. Gregory S. Martin, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley. ``It depends on what hot spots the nation thinks are important for us to have a presence in.''
But there is little doubt that Langley, headquarters of all the service's air combat forces, will be around for another 80 years.
Base staff members crack a reassuring smile to those who question whether this year's Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission may pounce on Langley. Politicians do, too, saying they have seen nothing to indicate any major changes.
Officially, neither Martin nor any of his staff can comment on what they know about recommendations the Air Force will make to the base-closure commission.
``Mostly, we hear we'll be all right,'' one senior officer said privately. ``We can't imagine anyone thinking about closing us down.''
Langley has two things going for it: A lot of space - nearly 3,000 acres of flat and relatively clear space at the western mouth of the Back River - and the largest and most powerful command in the Air Force, the Air Combat Command.
ACC headquarters is a two-story brick building that cannot hold all of its 3,000-member staff; about 300 of them work in leased offices outside the base. Commanded by Gen. John Mike Loh, ACC is the largest of a half-dozen major commands within the Air Force.
The ACC calls the shots at 24 bases worldwide - including its host base, Langley - and provides the ``global power'' arm to the service.
Loh is charged with providing air combat forces to all U.S. war-fighting commands - anywhere, anytime. He owns all the ``shooters'' in the Air Force - the fighters, bombers, reconnaissance, command, control, communications and intelligence aircraft.
The only thing he doesn't own are the missiles of the Air Force Space Command and the ``movers'' - the large fleet of tankers and transports of the Illinois-based Air Mobility Command.
Aside from hosting the ACC, Langley is home to much of its hardware - primarily 54 F-15 Strike Eagles of the 1st Fighter Wing. The F-15 is the Air Force's air superiority fighter, a twin-engine, one- and two-seat jet capable of flying more than 1,800 mph while delivering a variety of air-to-air missiles. It first entered service at Langley in January 1976.
Plus, there are 30 other smaller commands and the Air Force community that has grown up around Langley over eight decades. As many as 12,000 civilian and uniformed personnel and 73,000 retirees and dependents rely on Langley for its hospital services, commissary and base exchange.
Langley has been shrinking during the post-Cold War drawdown, losing 18 fighters. So has the ACC as a whole, which four years ago operated nearly 3,000 aircraft and today has 1,046.
Martin is hoping that the drawdown in other communities will send a few more planes and personnel to Langley in the coming years.
``We think, from a BRAC standpoint quite honestly, should some other bases be reduced, there is space (here) where we could absorb some of those missions if they made sense,'' said Martin.
At the top of Martin's list would be two of his squadrons, now based more than 1,000 miles to the south.
While the 71st and 41st Rescue Squadrons, plus their 600 personnel, are technically part of the 1st Fighter Wing, they operate out of Patrick Air Force Base, near Cocoa Beach, Fla. The 71st is a flying squadron of HC-130 refueling aircraft and the 41st uses HH-60 helicopters.
``We would love to have them move up here,'' said Martin. ``And we will probably build plans to make that look like a player sometime in the future. But to my knowledge, there is no program and no funding to make that happen right now.''
Langley has the excess capacity to handle such a move, especially after reducing the size of its F-15 squadrons and losing the EC-130 planes five years ago.
The 1,046 aircraft the ACC operates still sounds like a lot of people and equipment, Martin acknowledges. But spreading those assets across the world is becoming more difficult.
Martin's wing operates five types of aircraft and has been called upon repeatedly to carry out overseas assignments. His latest mission has been to Iceland, where air crews and support personnel will rotate duty until around April, filling a void when permanent forces were pulled back.
Under the base-closure process so far, the Air Force has shut down 13 major installations out of nearly 80 it previously operated, leading to significant cuts, said Martin.
Those closures are beginning to tax bases such as Langley which has a ``very, very heavy'' overseas contingency responsibility, he said.
``In the 1980s we had in Europe 10 fighter-wing equivalents. That equated to well over 700 fighter aircraft. Today, we have moved down to a little over three wings, totaling about 200 planes.''
Throughout the Air Force, the drawdown has taken about one-third of its personnel in five years, dropping from 608,000 to 420,000 today.
``That makes a big difference when you talk about having a force structure in Turkey and supporting `Deny Flight' operations in Bosnia,'' said Martin.
``You only have three wings sharing that whole mission now. So they have to be augmented from the people in the States.''
That, more than anything else, will keep Langley's 1st Fighter Wing in business for the foreseeable future.
Today, the 1st Fighter Wing is the host unit at Langley, providing support to the ACC and direct supervision of its three operational squadrons - the ``Fightin' Eagles'' of the 27th Fighter Squadron, the ``Hat-in-the-Ring Gang'' of the 94th Fighter Squadron and the ``Ironmen'' of the 71st Fighter Squadron.
The nation's military drawdown cost the 1st Fighter Wing 18 of its 74 sleek jets late last year. Today, instead of 24 aircraft assigned to each squadron, there are 18, more in keeping with the size of Air Force squadrons before the buildup of the 1980s, said Martin.
The end of the Cold War also cost Langley its 48th Fighter/Interceptor Squadron, once an around-the-clock air defense alert squadron of 18 F-15s that scrambled whenever a Soviet bomber passed along the East Coast on its way to Cuba.
One of Langley's three operational squadrons rotates that duty if needed now.
Also lost was the 6th Airborne Command and Control Squadron, composed of five EC-135 Boeing aircraft used as flying command posts during combat. That duty merely vanished with the Cold War. ILLUSTRATION: MOTOYA NAKAMURA/Staff
Brig. Gen. Gregory S. Martin, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing at
Langley, hopes that the drawdown in other communities will send a
few more planes and people to Langley.
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE
Graphic
JOHN CORBITT/Staff
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]
FACES OF THE BASE: LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE
1st Lt. Clif Stargardt, 26
Hampton
Meteorologist
Family: Single
Salary: $32,000
Years at base: 2 1/2
``I enjoy Langley; it's a fantastic place. I just love being in
the Air Force.''
Master Sgt. Christopher Brewington, 39
Newport News
Chief of wing administration
Family: Married, one son
Salary: ``Too low.''
Years at base: 2 1/2
``I came here about six months ago from the command (Air Combat
Command); it's a lot different working at the wing than in the
command. Here, I work with more of my peers, and we handle more
operations issues.''
Airman 1st Class Talisha James, 21
Hampton
Medical lab technician
Family: Single
Salary: Would not say
Years at base: 1
``I enjoy my job because it enables me to help people when they
are sick.''
Julie Spence, declined to give age
Hampton
Medical clerk
Family: Married, four children and six grandchildren
Salary: $24,000
Years at base: 11
``This is a good place to work, especially the hospital. It's
like your own family.''
KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSINGS MILITARY BASES by CNB