It was a rare show of bipartisanship Thursday at the 139th Airlift Wing based at Rosecrans Airport, as Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt held a joint roundtable discussion with local military, business and government leaders.
Missouri Adjutant General Stephen Danner noted that it may have been the first time in history that two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee visited the same Air National Guard base at the same time.
There were many areas of agreement between the two, as they traded questions and answers with the assembled guests on subjects ranging from the Wing’s priorities, to the rising cost of Missouri River levee repairs, to the problems currently raging between Russia and Ukraine.
As to the Airlift Wing, top brass outlined their priorities for the coming couple of years, some of which appear to be the subject of quite a tug-of-war in the Senate. Wing commanders are hoping they can get their hands on a C130-J, the so-called “Super Hercules” air-transport plane.
“There is not a Senator that is not looking out after their aircraft right now, so if we get one from someone else, we’ve got to arm wrestle one of their colleagues,” McCaskill said. “But, that doesn’t mean that we’re not capable of doing that.”
“I think the point is, to be the best training facility in the country on C130s, you have to have at least one copy of the best equipment, and that’s what the J now is,” Blunt said. “And then the other equipment that we’ve been working together for a couple of years now is to get a simulator.”
Both Senators agree that funding for the Wing is not at risk under upcoming sequester budget cuts, at least for now.
“We passed a bipartisan budget, and we passed the appropriations, so we’ve got budget lines set for this year and next,” McCaskill said.
Blunt added that next year appears safe as well.
“The year that begins October 1, that number’s decided on too,” Blunt said.
“The concern there, is that (Defense Secretary Chuck) Hagel has really painted two different pictures of cuts. One is the cuts you have if you have sequestration, and one’s the cuts you have if you don’t. And that worry would begin in October of 2016, when that spending year begins. And I think there’s a good solution here for the number-one priority of the federal government, and that’s to defend the country.”