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A relief for Youngstown Air Reserve Station

112513...R AIRLIFT AID 2...Vienna...11-25-13... An Air Force C-17 prepares to land at the Youngstown Air base Monday morning (C-130's in foreground) while on a humanitarian airlift...The Air Force C-17 was loaded with 14 pallets of humanitarian cargo for transport to Guatemala as part of the Mission for Love program...by R. Michael Semple

The 2017 Defense Authorization Bill that is awaiting President Barack Obama’s signature eliminates local worries that the federal government will try to close the local air reserve station in 2017.

“I  am satisfied that the bill forbids an additional round of Base Realignment and Closure,” U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, said last week.

The Defense Authorization Bill prohibits the Department of Defense from implementing another round of  BRAC in the absence of an accurate end-strength assessment.

The issue of BRAC is brought up every year during the budgetary hearings, only to be shot down by members of Congress, according to Michael Zetts, communications director with Ryan’s office.

“If they would have authorized BRAC, then that would have been news,” Zetts said. “For the last eight years, the defense budget has passed with no funding for BRAC in it.”

However, Zetts and others know they must remain vigilant against the efforts by some to reduce the effectiveness of various Air Force bases.

Vito J. Abruzzino, director of the Eastern Ohio Military Affairs Commission (EOMAC), said just because there is no BRAC in this year’s budget does not mean there may not be future negative impacts on the air base through other actions.

“We went from having 12 C-130 aircrafts to eight,”  he said. “All services are seeing a decline in the personnel and equipment.”

Abruzzino said local efforts are focused on preserving and growing the installation.

The local military installation has seen its workforce decrease from 2,000 people to fewer than 1,800, and its economic impact fall from $220 million to about $100 million in the past 10 years.

The reductions have been attributed to the transfer of four planes and the personnel who service them to other assignments.

Abruzzino described a huge effort by community leaders and military officials in Dayton to make sure that base maintains its current size or expands.

“It is an economic driver,” he said.

Abruzzino said EOMAC’s effort  is to make sure northeast Ohio is represented at state and federal programs that discuss the future of military bases .

“If we have no one at the table, no one will speak up for our interests,” he said.

rsmith@tribtoday.com

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