Air Force Realignment Closes Runway At Base Loss Of Refueling Tanker Wing Forces Closure At Malmstrom

The runway at Malmstrom Air Force Base was officially closed Wednesday, reflecting the sharp decrease in flight operations at the base since a refueling tanker wing was moved last year.

Crews planned to mark large X’s at the ends of the runway with painted sand bags, and the warning beacons were switched to two yellow lights, as a message to military pilots that the runway is to be used only for emergencies.

Use of the 54-year-old runway declined sharply since late summer, when the last of Malmstrom’s remaining 12 refueling tankers and most of its 740 crew members and support staff were shifted to MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.

“Under normal operations, a controller would be quite busy, keeping radio contact with the pilot, making sure the runway was cleared and keeping the fighters in sequence with other incoming planes,” Master Sgt. Sammie Davis, the chief controller, said Tuesday.

“It’s not been as busy as we like the last few months,” added Staff Sgt. David Tinder, a controller who worked at Malmstrom when its tanker force peaked at 24 planes a few years ago.

Col. Jim Higgins, Montana Air National Guard commander, said, “We really hate to see the Malmstrom runway close. It provided our Guard fighter pilots with a good alternative if we were having problems, such as excessive wind, at Gore Hill,” where Great Falls International Airport and Air Guard facilities are located.

“We also used Malmstrom’s runway a lot for training,” he said. “We could fly there without interference from commercial and light aircraft.”

Brig. Gen. Tim McMahon, Malmstrom’s senior commander, said he realizes the transfer of the flying mission will be a big loss economically for Great Falls, but added he has to obey orders to close the runway.

The transfer decision was made during the 1995 base closure and realignment process that was a product of military cutbacks following the end of the cold war, he said. The size of the Air Force has dropped by a third since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, McMahon added.

About 20 personnel will continue to operate eight helicopters from the east end of the Malmstrom runway. The 40th Rescue Flight ferries maintenance people and equipment to the missile silos and helps in area search and rescues.

McMahon said he is confident the base’s missile wing future is bright. An incoming mobile engineering squadron will offset about one-third of the lost tanker jobs, he said.

It has not been determined who would maintain the Malmstrom runway if the base indeed is selected as the long-range landing site for 13 NASA test flights of the experimental X-33 prototype shuttle in 1998. But McMahon guessed that NASA would determine what maintenance is needed and pay for it.

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