Air Force presence will remain in Duluth

06/23/2005

Kevin Diaz,
Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent
June 23, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he received commitments from two National Guard generals Wednesday to maintain an Air Force presence in Duluth.

The Air Force plans to retire the 148th Fighter Wing’s 15 F-16 fighter jets at the end of 2007, but it currently has no plans to close the base. Pawlenty said the Air Force is committed to finding a comparable mission for the Air National Guard, which currently generates about 500 jobs in Duluth.

Pawlenty said he received that assurance in a meeting with Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, and Lt. Gen. Daniel James III, director of the Air National Guard.

“General Blum gave us a commitment that he would identify a follow-on mission if and when the F-16s are retired,” Pawlenty said. The Republican governor was joined by Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., and Sens. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, and Norm Coleman, a Republican, at an hourlong meeting at the Pentagon.

Pentagon officials still have to work out details of a new mission, a process that is expected to begin at a July 6 meeting of National Guard leaders from around the nation.

“They were not absolutely specific,” Dayton said. Coleman called it “a very good meeting, a very positive meeting,” and he said he left feeling upbeat. “I think it’s very fair to say we got a very firm commitment from the Guard,” he said.

Coleman and Pawlenty were to be in Grand Forks, N.D., today to testify before the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which is holding hearings on the Pentagon’s plans to close bases.

On Wednesday, several thousand Grands Forks residents lined the north side of U.S. Hwy 2 along the 13 miles between the city and the air base, which would lose its air refueling tankers and most of its jobs.

They waved hundreds of American flags as the bus bearing commission members arrived at the base’s main gate. Volunteer firefighters set up trucks alongside the base access road, spraying cascades of water that had been dyed red, white and blue, over the bus. Local businesses, prominent among them base contractors, gave employees the day off so they could attend the rally, and base boosters hoped to re-create the show of force today.

“If we don’t have a tremendous number of people out there, it’s going to hurt our case,” said John Marshall, a Grand Forks attorney who for several years has led the local committee against base closings.