By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Missouri U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt says he will continue to press
the Air Force and the Air National Guard on why the 139th Airlift
Wing has not yet received the latest version of the C-130 cargo plane.
Schmitt, during a hearing in Washington, questioned why the
139th, based at Rosecrans Memorial Airport in St. Joseph, didn’t
receive the new C-130J models in the first round of allocations. Schmitt points
out the current federal budget has money for eight more C-130J models.
“There have been eight J’s, essentially, appropriated for.
There are eight available in the next round (of funding) and Rosecrans should
get those,” Schmitt tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
A recent evaluation of Air Guard bases appears to have the 139th
as the next-in-line to receive the modern cargo planes.
Federal, state, and city money has been poured into Rosecrans
to upgrade the military base to meet federal criteria for the new planes.
Schmitt points out the 139th trains pilots from
around the globe at its Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center at Rosecrans.
“Like, when the Indian, the country of India’s Air Force,
comes in for training, they ‘ve got the newer model and we’ve got the H’s from
the 1980s. And we’re training these folks,” Schmitt says. “And so, it just
makes all the sense in the world for those J’s to be home there at Rosecrans
and we’re going to do everything we can to continue to press on that issue.”
Schmitt, a Republican, serves on the Senate Armed Services
Committee and recently brought up the issue to Air Force Secretary Frank
Kendall during a committee hearing on Capitol Hill.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.