Why the singular focus on the Mayor? What about the Idaho congressional delegation all scrambling to defend both bases and the status quo? This is the same crowd that whines and bellyaches about the growing national debt but will be the first to rush to the microphones whenever a project in their home districts is threatened. The hypocrisy of it all is stunning.

EDITOR NOTE–Point well taken. Must admit from our perspective, local politico (mayor) is least qualified to opine on national defense. We agree the delegation would be culpable, but for the most part they can’t really complain as long as Mt. Home remains open– which is more likely if it has an increased presence.

PS: I think the A-10s will be used in the future as civilian water bombers.

I see the Mayor of Mountain Home hasn’t commented yet. Maybe he will challange the Mayor of Boise to a duel.

EDITOR NOTE–He did welcome the Guard with open arms and no ill will to Boise.

It is interesting to me how “the Reserves” has changed during the decades of my so-called adulthood. At one time the Reserves were back-up to National and Local disasters and prepared to be pressed into service in the case of National military need. Then they became the source of employment or second job employment. Then they were the means of serving one’s military obligation without going on full active duty. Now that the draft is no longer in use, the Reserve is the source of our standing army for fighting our undeclared wars abroad. Re-locating Reserve unit locations to active duty installations seems to me to make fiscal sense. The military has never been noted for considering personnel convenience in making decisions, doubt that it will in this instance. Mountain Home needs the fiscal boost as much or more than any other community in Idaho, after all. And, Mike Simpson, I would guess, has a lot more pull in Washington, DC that our other Representative, and Mountain Home is in Simpson’s district while Boise is split between the two.

Wow! A lot of odd comments so far.
“Two military air bases less than 40 miles apart”. That’s like saying it doesn’t make sense to have two airports for Chicago. 2 airports for DC. 3 for NY? I’m sure there is a list of other airbases within close proximity.

Different missions, different objectives.

“segregating high speed military jets from commercial aircraft, so much the better for air safety “- Guardian, do you think the military aircraft at Boise Airport present an air safety hazard?

“pushed to have the skies over Boise filled with noisy jets”-
FILLED with NOISY jets.

If one were to only read this post, one might conclude we have Nellis AFB on Broadway.

“Combat jets aren’t designed to do much more than kill people and destroy objects”
That’s one way to look at em. But they’re also designed to make NOISE. 😉

Easterner… it make perfect sense to say it makes no sense to have 2 separate bases 40 miles apart. Why does Chicago have 2 airports? Why does NY have 3? Dallas 2? I’ll tell you… the amount of air traffic. I will give you this… there are no high speed acft stationed at Gowen.. even if there were typical speed limits around aerodromes “airports” is set at 250kts so high speed isn’t really a factor. I still think there is no reason to have 2 bases this close.

Rick,
From time to time, Mtn Home airbase does not have a functioning airstrip- for example, maintenance, aircraft crash, and weather. It’s useful to have a secondary airstrip within a reasonable distance. Granted that is true even if Air Guard were not in Boise. But then you would have AF F15s landing in Boise likely without any AF support for those jets. As you post, “the amount of air traffic”. Mtn Home has one runway. Sure they could share, but having a secondary unit is beneficial.

Different funding, different missions, risk of Mtn Home closure, and probably mostly, different chain of commands- it does make some sense.
It also makes some sense to combine them. Certainly pros and cons of each option.

Zippo, the Guardian doesn’t need to publish the pay scales- they are easily available online.

Guardian, that E-5 is getting more than the typical E-5 if he is assigned to Hawaii due to the costs there. An E-5 in MtnHome is not earning that much. Not everyone gets those “extras”.

But then again there is the free medical provided by mostly paramedic-level personnel, housing if you like barracks and cockroaches, flight pay if you are smart enough to qualify and don’t mind the NOISE, combat pay to get shot at or meet an IED, overseas pay to live in some hellhole like Bahrain.

Keep in mind you might work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for months on end, you get to leave your spouse and kids for 6- 12 months at a time, sleep where people lob rockets into your tent, you generally cant play if you have a previous drug/crime record or really are out of physical condition, you get fired if you get in legal problems, and if you’re real lucky you get to a share a bed with another person while you cruise under the ocean for months at a time smelling your stinky coworkers all the time. That “extra” is called SubPay for about 250/month..

And once you make the choice to volunteer, you pretty much don’t get to decide whether you work at Gowen or Mtn Home. And that might be why they call it serving your country.
Yep, you’re right, it’s “not a bad deal”.

I can remember in 1994 when they had a big round of base closures. Congress tasked a Blue Ribbon Committee to decide which bases would go on the chopping block. They did their work, closed a lot of useless bases for defense and guess what.. we are all still here and we need another round of base closures. I love to hear all the faux conservatives speak about the sacred soil of military bases.

The first place I would start is with the 900 or so bases Ron Paul talked about not on our soil and target those bases for closure along with all the useless bases on our soil.

Rick, the initial point was the Guard is concerned the distance to commute to MH will affect recruitment and retention.

Rod says sometimes you have to live in places like MH- to have a job. (even though we are talking about part-time employment and Boise being the alternative).

Rick, you then said driving 1 hour to MH ought not hurt recruitment- “wa wa” “buck up weekend warriors” . So you and the Guard command disagree.

Zippo thinks military pay is “mind blowing numbers” and therefore the cost to drive 2 hours must be irrelevant.

Rod mentions the enlisted pay rate and says its “not much”.

And then the EDITOR says, “it’s not a bad deal” as if to say Guard members are well paid for what they are expected to do.

I simply am reminding readers of what some military members are expected to do for their pay and “extras”. And now you want to add to the expectation, driving to MH twice a month to earn their pay.

So, Rick, it seems pretty _ relevant to the issue and this discussion, since others have already included it in the discussion, including you with “wa wa buck up weekend warriors”.

No one is “funding 2 bases”. The Guard pays Boise to be there. They would likely be paying the AF to be there. Different funding- different mission- different budgets. If you don’t want to pay for two different units of Air Force/Guard then you are talking about deleting one of those units- that a totally different topic.

Yet,you say “the mission” can be accomplished with just one base. So what is “the mission” that you are referring to Rick? Cuz, I’m pretty sure the MHAF Base mission is different than the Guard Commander’s mission… but I don’t know since I’m not in their meetings.

By the reasoning displayed above, we dont’ need a Boise airport at all. WE can all drive to SLC. It is the same mission of just getting on a plane to go somewhere else. ha! I’m sure Delta and United Airlines will think that’s a great solution. Look at all the airline carriers that have left Boise in past years. And the current air travel for Boise business people is so wonderful already.

And when HP says they don’t need a Boise campus, those employees can just commute to Palo Alto. Heck, they can even carpool in hybrids. I’m sure HP has the “same mission” there in Palo Alto so it makes sense, right? And ALL HP employees get paid really well so they can afford it. 🙂

Easterner… so everyone in the guard is part time… wow.. not so much. I will say again if driving 40 miles to work once a month (part timers) is a deal breaker they are not that dedicated in the first place and I for one do not want them and, if the full timers are too good to drive that far for 47k plus jobs… I don’t want them either. If you want to know where I got the 47k number look on USA Jobs.
Now lets get to the blatantly stupid comments…
1. It is not 2 hours to MHAFB I know I drove it both from the north end in Boise and Kuna for 2 years… for a LOT less than 47K a year.
2. The editor is right… they get paid very very well for what they do…see USA Jobs.
3. You are reminding people of what the military members do for their money… not the guard. There are a lot of states where guard members drive a lot more than 40 miles to get there… and I don’t hear them crying.
4. No one is funding 2 bases… are you serious? Who pays Gowen’s bills… according to you… no one, I won’t comment further.. that statement is too ludicrous.
5. Yes the mission can be accomplished on one base… there are a lot of dual role bases in the world. Mt Home already has multi missions.. so that argument is mute also.
6. You are really grasping at straws aren’t you… Ya SLC is only 40 miles away…Lets close BOI and everyone can drive the 40 miles to SLC. HP and Palo Alto… same thing.
If you are not willing to be logical then there is no use discussing this with you. Come up with logical well thought out points instead of trying to bait arguments and we can talk.

Are you in the guard?… have you ever been in the military?

NO it is not logical… If they are too good to drive that far for their money… Let them eat cake!!

I will ask the question again… are you…or have you ever been in the military? Where do you get your info?
You are quite pompous aren’t you??
You might want to look at that web page…lol.. the IANG already has units under the command of the Wing King you mentioned… in addition to a unit at Whidbey Island, a unit from Tinker AFB Ok. and even a unit from Singapore.

Remember those reading classes in grade school… guess not.

Want me to shoot more holes in your story, it wont be hard.

EDITOR NOTE–RICK and EASTERNER, if you don’t start playing nice, you’r headed for Time Out and comments will bel closed. Don’t make me do it!

Dearest military people who think money grows on a tree in my yard… LOL! Sorry man, but Uncle Sam is way way beyond flat broke: You ain’t gonna get most of that money they promised you… neither will I.

BTW: Most of today’s military is geared to serve as a mercenary force in the Mid-East/Asia… Only a small part is reserved to keeping USA safe.

You’d think the Arabs would sell us cheap oil for keeping them safe, but instead they grease DC with cash to our politicians who then agree to not notice high oil prices.

RodSE: I work for free several times a year. I call it direct, hands on community assistance. No middle-man, no transaction, no government involvement. (Government-aid workers hate it. How dare I teach people to fish.)
It also keeps my yearly income low to avoid paying taxes to the greasy crooks driving our country off a cliff.

Here’s a link to some credible graphs which did not come from the comic-strip room at the WhiteHouse. America is broke and then some… She is without the ability to pay… Sad but true, we are in decline.

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/10-charts-revealing-americas-painful-jobless-recovery.html/?a=viewall

Zippo,
maybe you haven’t seen the news for the last 40 years, but our military does a lot more than protect your price of fuel to preserve the economy as we know it.

I for one, like jet noise.
I also like sirens screaming past my home, the rotors noise of LifeFlight, and the alarm of a nieghbors barking dog announcing an intruder.