Federal Government
Big Birds To Fly The Coop At Gowen Field
March 30, 2009 
The skies over Boise will be a little quieter and less crowded after Tuesday when an Air National Guard Unit goes out of business.
The 189th Airlift Squadron, which began tactical airlift operations with the C-130 in 1996, will fly its final mission – a routine training mission taking off and landing at Boise’s Gowen Field.
During normal training procedures, they conducted about 60 or more “air operations” each week where the big four engine craft land, take off, make touch-and-go approaches etc. Those will cease.
The 124th Aerial Port Flight, also shut down operations earlier this month. Those airmen worked side by side with the 189th Airlift Squadron handling cargo, rolling stock, personnel and many other support tasks for the past 13 years.
About 165 positions were eliminated by the Base Closure Committee of the Federal Department of Defense which made the decision in 2005 to deactivate the C-130 unit and disperse the four huge Vietnam-era turbo prop cargo planes to other bases.
An Air Guard spokesman noted that about two-thirds of Air Guard personnel are part timers, so only about 50 or 60 fulltime poisitions were lost in Boise.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Mar 31, 2009, 9:36 am
We are short of airlift capability, down over 200 ships since Reagan, and over a million personnel. We have enough smart munitions to fight a real war for a few days and then our vaunted edge in high tech goes away and we have to fight an old fashioned war. With China and Russia rearming this is no time to gut the military.
Mar 31, 2009, 11:02 am
JIMV,
Do you really think in the age of nuclear annihilation a “real” war will ever be waged? I think you are so disrespectful of our military fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan for your freedom to imply they are not fighting a real war. I dare you to go over to the VA hospital and tell some of the recently returned vets from Iraq or Afghanistan that they didn’t fight in a “real” war.
Go back to your arm chair and plug in a Ronnie Reagan “real” war movie.
Apr 1, 2009, 11:42 am
Yes…after WWI another war was thought unthinkable and out of the question as the consequences were unimaginable, but they held one anyway. In WWII we lost 5000 troops a day on occasion. We had 20 million troops under arms and a Navy of over 20,000 ships and still we were hard pressed for 3 1/2 years. The way to avoid such losses is to be too strong to attack in the first place so, when the rest of the world arms, one does not disarm in order to use the savings to buy votes from ones friends. Peace through superior firepower always peace peace through surrender.
Apr 2, 2009, 1:52 am
So what happens to the members of the Air National Guard? Do they train with model airplanes, or paper planes or what?
Just because the brass decided they don’t want to use these particular planes doesn’t mean they don’t want to use any planes. Will Gowen get some other kind, or what????
Apr 2, 2009, 11:06 am
JIMV,
Do the math. A $2500.00 RPG warhead can take out a 10.M tank no problem by a minimally trained fighter.
There is no such thing as a conventional war any more. The bad guys don’t even wear uniforms or wave flags.
Speaking of ships, I have a brother who works at the Naval ship yard in Norfolk VA. He gets to refit US Naval ships for millions of dollars only to see the Pentagon decide they don’t want the ship anymore and send it to the mothball fleet after he is done with the refit. The military contracts for equipment go beyond the (percieved)useful life of the weapons. The ships are often refitted with food and provisions then sent to sea to be sunk. We are Rome.
Apr 2, 2009, 2:33 pm
JIMV:
No surprise.
During the Air Force Base closings, thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars was spent repairing, improving, enlarging, etc., facilities on bases that had already been ordered closed.
Anybody got any idea why our taxes are so high?
Apr 2, 2009, 6:25 pm
Our taxes are so high because the folk who pay them…you and I, have more respect for the tax laws and economic reality than our Congress does.
Apr 2, 2009, 6:48 pm
JIMV:
Is Congress even aware of economic reality?