Secretary: Local reservists ‘lifesavers during Katrina’

By Ed Runyan | July 13, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

VIENNA

The person hired to help educate federal, state and military officials about the value of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station and reduce the chances of base closure here said a meeting with the secretary of the Air Force shows the strides being made.

Atty. Vito Abruzzino, director of the Eastern Ohio Military Affairs Commission of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber, said he spoke twice with Heather Wilson, secretary of the Air Force, in late June.

The second time they spoke, in Dayton, Wilson told Abruzzino of the important work done by reservists in the aerial-spray unit at the air base during Hurricane Katrina.

“I want you to know that those Youngstown guys came down and they were lifesavers during Katrina,” Wilson told Abruzzino. She said the reservists were able to reduce the mosquito population and reduce illness.

“These are the types of relationships that have really come to grow and are showing true fruition at this point, something we didn’t have two short years ago,” Abruzzino said.

Abruzzino was hired in 2015 to lead the Eastern Ohio Military Affairs Commission.

Abruzzino gave the Western Reserve Port Authority an update on his work because the port authority contributes some of the money that runs the commission.

The port authority runs the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, which is also used by the air reserve station, home of the Air Force’s 910th Airlift Wing.

Abruzzino said he attended the three-day Association of Defense Communities Conference National Summit in Washington, D.C., on June 19 and was among 700 people in the defense industry – consultants, communities with bases or commanders and leaders from the bases. From all of Ohio, only he and representatives from Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton were there.

In other business, the Thunder Over The Valley air show last month was “a great success,” despite the rain that canceled the Air Force Thunderbirds performance on the final day, the director of the air show said.

“People had a chance to feel metal, smell smoke, jet fuel, get hot and sweaty and a little bit of rain on Sunday,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Jeff Shaffer of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station. The Youngstown Warren Regional Airport hosted the June 17 and 18 air show.

Shaffer said 16,000 people attended the show Saturday. Another 5,000 to 6,000 attended Sunday, before the rains came.

There were pros and cons to having the show that weekend. A benefit was having the ability to book other acts for the show besides the Thunderbirds because only one other air show was happening that weekend.

A negative was that fewer people attended because it was Father’s Day weekend.

Shaffer said he made the decision to cancel the Thunderbirds on Sunday because there were two lines of thunderstorms nearby.