BRAC COMMISSION Evacuation squad won't be relocated

The commission will send its final recommendations to the president Thursday.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
VIENNA -- A 142-member Air Force Reserve aeromedical evacuation squad officials thought would be transferred to the Youngstown Air Reserve Station will remain in Pittsburgh.
After evaluating documents from a federal commission, officials with Operation: Save Our Airbase Reservists, a local group established to help save the local air base, say the Pittsburgh squad won't move here.
The Base Realignment and Closure commission unanimously voted last week to overturn a U.S. Department of Defense recommendation to close the Pittsburgh International Airport Air Reserve Station.
That DOD recommendation called for the Pittsburgh aeromedical squad in 2007 to move to Vienna air station, home of the 910th Airlift Wing, that employs 2,400 people.
Commission's decision
BRAC members voted to keep the Pittsburgh base staffed at its "current manning level." There are more than 2,000 reservists and 322 full-time workers at that facility.
Reid Dulberger, SOAR's co-chairman, said last week that members of the organization strongly believed that meant that the aeromedical squad wouldn't move to the Vienna facility. At the time, he said the group needed more time to examine the BRAC commission's recommendation.
On Friday, Dulberger said the documents regarding the Pittsburgh recommendation clearly show the aeromedical squad isn't going anywhere.
But Dulberger isn't disappointed because closing the Pittsburgh base would be a huge blow to that city, and to those in western Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio who are employed at that facility.
The BRAC commission will send its final report Thursday to President Bush.
skolnick@vindy.com