AIR RESERVE STATION Report stirs hope for base survival

Insufficient on-base housing for reservists is one fault at the base.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
LIBERTY -- The Youngstown Air Reserve Station's infrastructure is "about the best we've seen," and there is room for expansion, two big plusses, said a consulting group hired to assess the Vienna base's strengths and weaknesses.
The air base has a "lot of strengths and very few weaknesses. It has, relative to other C-130 units, a very diverse mission, an enviable ... history of contributions to national security, an excellent safety record, very fine facilities, a nearby training range and a supportive community," according to The Spectrum Group.
Spectrum, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting group, was hired by the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber in partnership with Save Our Airbase Reservists (SOAR), a community-based group, to analyze the air station and make recommendations on what can be done to better the base's chances of surviving the Department of Defense's 2005 round of base realignment and closure (BRAC).
Lengthening the runway from 7,500 to 9,000 feet since the last BRAC round, and other improvements to the apron parking area, should keep the unit very competitive with other Reserve C-130 units, said John B. Hall Jr., Spectrum spokesman.
"I'm cautiously optimistic" about the base's ability to survive the 2005 BRAC round, said Hall, a retired Air Force Reserve lieutenant general.
Hall revealed the results of Spectrum's analysis at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
The goals of BRAC are to eliminate excess physical military capacity, using the main criteria of military need and some lesser items, such as cost of operations and economic impact on the community around the bases.
Weaknesses
Despite Hall's upbeat report, not all the news he presented Thursday was good.
The Youngstown Air Reserve Station, which houses the Air Force Reserve's 910th Airlift Wing of 12 C-130 cargo planes and small Navy and Marine Corps Reserve units, does not have anything that makes it unique. But neither do any other air reserve units, Hall said.
He said the 910th's aerial spray mission, while the only such large plane unit in the DOD, does not make it unique. C-130 units can easily be moved, he said.
However, according to Spectrum's report, one opportunity to use the aerial spray mission to raise the base to the unique category is the ongoing effort to establish a strong connection between the 910th and Kent State University Trumbull Campus' applied aerial research center.
KSU established the Center for Emerging Technologies in Aerial Application Research to work on such things as creating a rapid response capability to decontaminate chemical/biological weapons such as anthrax.
Other weaknesses listed in the Spectrum report include:
ULack of on-base lodging for reservists. There are 76 rooms, and 338 are needed.
ULack of an institutionalized mechanism for controlling encroachment of development around the base that would ensure Air Force Reserve and the Western Reserve Port Authority have input into land-use and zoning issues in the air field vicinity.
ULocal public education may be rated as average or slightly below average.
Recommendations
Spectrum recommended, among other things, that:
UAn entity be formed, under the auspices of the chamber with other public sector representation, to develop and operate the needed on-base lodging.
USOAR should continue to help the community look at land acquisition initiatives for the Port Authority to better accommodate future military and other potential growth and to help control urban encroachment.
While the study found the Youngstown Air Reserve Station has a number of relative strengths, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, cautioned that the community should not take the overall positive nature of the report to mean that the base is in no danger of closing.
"We've always known that we have a good base, but many good bases are going to be closed. For this study to mean anything, we have to take what we've learned and do something with it. The Valley has to give our air base the support it needs -- financially and politically -- to get this done," he said.
Besides analysis, The Spectrum Group brings a great deal of BRAC and military experience to bear on the SOAR effort. Besides Hall, who heads up TSG's BRAC Division and Assessment Team, are Gen. J.B. Davis (USAF retired), one of eight commissioners who served on the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission and who conducted the site inspection at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station; Dr. John Lynch, former director of the Office of Economic Adjustment, Office of the Secretary of Defense; and Col. Paul E. McManus (USAF retired), former head of the Air Force Liaison Office, U.S. House of Representatives.
Also Thursday, Reid Dulberger, executive vice president of the Regional Chamber and co-chairman of SOAR, announced the addition of Brig. Gen. Michael Gjede (USAF retired) to the SOAR team. Gjede was commander of the 910th until his retirement June 30.
alcorn@vindy.com