Survival School gets $8.2 million

Fairchild Air Force Base got a bit of an early Christmas gift this week, courtesy of the taxpayers and the U.S. Senate. The Air Force Survival School located on the West Plains base will get an extra $8.2 million in the coming year to build a new Resistance Training Center.

The money is in the military construction bill signed this week by President Bush. But the project wasn’t in Bush’s original defense budget, nor was it part of a military spending plan put together by the U.S. House.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., helped add it to the Senate spending proposal, and the project stayed in the compromise budget the two chambers worked out. On Thursday, Murray toured the base and the building to be replaced, which she described as “old, dilapidated and lacking modern equipment.”

“We’re sending these men and women out, and they need the best training and equipment we can provide,” she said. Updating base facilities is also important to avoid any suggestion of closure in future years, she added.

All Air Force flight crews receive survival training at Fairchild.