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SOAR Presents Case for Keeping Youngstown Reserve Base Open
By Dennis LaRueGIRARD, Ohio -- The improvements made to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport since the last round of base closings 10 years ago will help the cause of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, home of the 910th Airlift Wing.That was as far as The Spectrum Group TSG, a consulting group hired by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, would go Thursday afternoon at a press briefing held at the Holiday Inn Metroplex. The chamber created Operation SOAR, an acronym for Save Our Air Reservists, which in turn contracted Spectrum.Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John B. "Skip" Hall Jr., offered considerable reason for optimism that the air base in Vienna should escape being closed in the 2005 round of Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC), noting the pluses far outweigh the shortcomings, which he described as "some minor problems that can be dealt with in short order."In the next BRAC round, Spectrum writes in its Baseline Assessment of 910th Airlift Wing and the Youngstown-Warren Communities, "It's not to difficult to make some assumptions about what will be important to [the nine BRAC commissioners'] airfield analyses, but much more difficult to predict what kind of community metrics will be used."Translation: community support and the economic impact are wild cards but should carry more weight than the last time.Were the base in the same condition and have the same characteristics as 1995, it likely would be chosen to shut down, Spectrum says."It was (and is) difficult to pin down exactly where Youngstown ranked in the 1995 BRAC," Spectrum writes, because it could not obtain data on how Youngstown was assessed. Based on the data it could obtain and its knowledge of the procedure, "We feel Youngstown was in the bottom 33 percentile." Only two other similar air bases "scored lower and both have closed."But, the Youngstown air base has seen significant improvements, such as extending its main runway from 7,500 feet to 9,000 feet, the work comparatively new and leaving the surface in better condition than most runways. Closing the base would have a greater economic impact on the region, both eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, than others whose recoveries are further along.The Youngstown base has done a better job of recruiting reservists and keeping its strength up than other bases, Hall noted. The educational opportunities for reservists are good with the presence of Youngstown and Kent State universities and the latter's branch campuses, Penn State University's Shenango campus and Hiram College. "The medical care here is especially good," the general remarked."The unit has an enviable long-time and recent history of contributions to national security, an excellent safety record, very fine facilities, a nearby training range and a supportive community," Spectrum found. "Recent improvements to runway length and apron parking area should keep the unit competitive with other Reserve C-130 [aircraft] units. There is room for immediate growth without additional military construction and room for much more growth should the community be successful in current initiatives to acquire more land." Which is to say should another C-130 unit be closed, the base at Youngstown has room to absorb it.What could work against the Youngstown Air Reserve Station is its "lack of uniqueness." However, Hall said, very few C-130 units, or many military bases for that matter, are unique. It as easy (and no more expensive) to relocate another C-130 unit to Youngstown as it is to move the 910th elsewhere. "C-130 training can be done nearly anywhere," Spectrum said. "The number of aircraft [once 16] will remain at 12 and the manning will stay as is."Even its aerial spray mission, unique to Youngstown, could easily be transferred. "It can be performed from virtually any base in the country, so it offers no 'uniqueness' to the site that will have an impact on the relative merit in the BRAC process," Spectrum wrote. And, Hall noted, the 910th get its supply of insecticide sprays from another location.On the plus side, the 910th has a nearby airdrop training location in Ravenna only 20 miles west that can accommodate all of the unit's airdrop training.What would help the station's bid to remain open, Spectrum recommended, is "the ongoing effort to establish a strong cooperative bond between the 910th and Kent State Trumbull's applied aerial research center," CETAAR or Center for Emerging Technologies in Aerial Application Research. Hall noted, however, that that effort has been dormant for some time because of turnover both at Kent and the air base.A shortcoming scheduled to be remedied by 2007, should the base remain open, is the lack of lodging for reservists. Many bunk in World War II era housing. "The 76 rooms for lodging could use 262 more," Spectrum wrote. Cost of building the new units would be $10.6 million.Preserving a buffer zone between the base and the outsideto prevent encroachment is probably the one aspect of SOAR's campaign that the community can undertake. "There are two kinds of encroachment," Spectrum wrote, that present and that coming in the future. It's that latter that should pose greater concern and Trumbull County and Vienna and Fowler townships should enact zoning that prevents settlement or business from coming too close.What the community can do beyond acting as a cheerleader in keeping the base open is unclear. Spectrum was most impressed by the "pro-active community with all financial support for 'save-the-base' efforts and many other worthy improve-the-community efforts coming from local business."Closing the base, Spectrum noted, would be a severe blow to the economic develop efforts centered at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport including the regional airport industrial park. "