Ryan steps up campaign to secure air base's future

To understand just how bloody the battle of the military installations has become, consider what Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has been doing to protect an Air National Guard base in Boise: He is holding up nearly 400 Air Force promotions until the Air Force keeps a promise to place four more C-130 transport planes at the facility. With the four already stationed at Gowen Air National Guard Base, the additions would create a full squadron.
Having a squadron would make it more difficult for the federal base-closing commission to recommend deactivation of Gowen in 2005. The senator has secured $40 million in construction to prepare for the full squadron.
Although Craig's actions have angered Air Force officials, members of the Bush administration and even Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill, he remained defiant this week. He contended a promise was made to him 18 months ago and he wanted the promise to be kept.
Let there be no mistake: This is all about the base closing commission and Craig's goal to keep the Boise facility off the list. It is also noteworthy that the four C-130s would have to come from some other base, since the Air Force isn't buying new ones.
The story of Craig's battle with the Air Force appeared in the New York Times on Monday, just as one of the Mahoning Valley's congressmen, Tim Ryan, was announcing his plans to launch an aggressive campaign to keep the Youngstown Air Reserve Station, which is home to the Air Force Reserve's 910th Airlift Wing, off the list.
The wing operates 16 C-130H transport planes. Its creation was the brainchild of former Valley Congressman James A. Traficant Jr., D-Poland, who argued correctly that expanding the reserve station would go a long way toward securing its future.
Huge investment
Traficant, a Democrat, made deals with the Republican leadership in the House to not only increase the number of planes assigned to the Youngstown base, but to bring in millions of dollars for construction projects. Navy and Marine reserve units are also stationed at the base.
In announcing that he will work closely with the organizers of "Operation Air Base," a grass-roots effort to make the case for keeping the Youngstown Air Reserve Station off the closing list, Ryan, of Niles, D-17th, also said he intends to push for the further expansion of the Vienna Township installation. That is a worthwhile strategy considering that the Pentagon is looking to downsize, which means consolidation or closure of military installations in the United States and abroad.
The base has more than 2,000 full- and part-time Air Force reservists, civilians and contractors. Last year, it pumped $86 million into the Valley's economy. More than 570 off-base jobs were created as a result of its economic impact. It is the Mahoning Valley's fourth-largest employer -- and its loss would be devastating to the region's economy.
Ryan is absolutely right in making the future of the air reserve station a priority in his infant tenure -- he has completed six months of his first term. His desire to expand the base's mission shows he clearly understands that, in the end, Capitol Hill politics will play a major role in how the base-closing commission arrives at its decisions.
We have no doubt that Ryan will do what he must -- just as his predecessor Traficant did -- to make sure the Youngstown Air Reserve Station is on the radar screen of the Republican leadership in the House and Senate. In that regard, we would urge him to solicit the help of Ohio's two senators, Mike DeWine and George V. Voinovich, both Republicans, and to form partnerships with members of Congress from this part of the state and from Western Pennsylvania.
And it goes without saying that the support of the Valley's other congressman, Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, is not only important, but it is expected.