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Guard still figuring effect of loss of F-16s

Associated Press

GREAT FALLS – The possible removal of the Montana Air National Guard’s F-16 fighters here may involve fewer job losses than initially estimated, an officer says.

“We are probably talking double digits, and that can be managed through attrition and things like that,” said Col. Brad Livingston, a top adviser to Adj. Gen. Randy Mosley, the state’s top National Guard official.

As part of the Base Realignment and Closure process, the Pentagon recently recommended removing 15 F-16s operated by the Montana Air National Guard in Great Falls. Six of the planes would go to Iowa and Alabama, and the others would be retired.

The Pentagon said the move would eliminate 107 full-time jobs here, and a former top official with the Montana Air National Guard put the number closer to 500. The Air National Guard functions with about 300 full-time and 700 part-time jobs in Great Falls.

“None of the numbers at this particular time are accurate,” Livingston said Friday. The National Guard Bureau will use a computer model to determine how many jobs will be affected, if the Pentagon recommendations become reality. Air National Guard spokesman Capt. Jeff Pepke said a final decision on operations in Great Falls is about three months away.

A nine-member commission could alter the Pentagon recommendations before presenting them to President Bush by early September.

Livingston, who joined Mosley and other Montana military brass in Washington, D.C., earlier this week, was a Montana Air National Guard officer for many years before joining Mosley’s staff in Helena. Mosley oversees both the Air National Guard and the Army National Guard in Montana. Livingston said Montana officials who went to Washington met with Lt. Gen. Daniel James, head of the National Guard Bureau.

“We made our concerns known to the Guard Bureau that we would like the (job) numbers as soon as possible so we can tell our people,” Livingston said. A new mission could do much to lessen job losses if the F-16s are removed, he said.

Montana Guard officials have joined political leaders in questioning whether moving and retiring the F-16s would be wise, but they also are trying to bring new military missions here.