Quick: Name the sixth-largest employer in Orange County with an annual payroll of $92 million.
Hint: President Obama likes to park Air Force One in their lot.
Answer: The 105th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard.
The Air National Guard (ANG) members at Stewart International Airport ensured there were no hitches when Obama visited West Point to give the commencement address May 22.
The base has grown and established itself in the region since the early 1980s when the ANG chose the former Air Force field for a site and chose the 105th Airlift Wing to be based there. Its 270 acres have more than 1,500 full and part-time active military, reservists and civilian personnel working on the base.
Since there is no housing at the base, 70 percent of its ANG personnel live in Orange and Dutchess counties, the remainder farther outside the immediate area. “A few,” said Brig. Gen. Verle Johnston Jr., who has been in command since 2007, “live as far away as Pennsylvania ”“ I think they like the property taxes a bit better and are willing to take the extra time to get here.”
Johnston estimated the 105th Airlift Wing, the detachment of U.S. Marines stationed at the base and U.S. Army reservists that have a station on the base, as well as the reservists that swell its numbers to 1,500 on some weekends, pumps $225 million a year into the local economy.
The base is currently undergoing a major facelift, with all of its buildings being retrofitted and upgraded. Johnston estimated the cost of the renovations to be $10 million in 2010, “using local labor.” The base is also planning a new firehouse to be built in 2011 at a cost of $12 million. Johnston said the wing is getting ready to put several construction jobs out to bid in October, when its fiscal year begins.
A four-acre solar field is planned on the base and is expected to be completed by the end of the current fiscal year.
In addition to renovating brick and mortar, the base”™s fleet of C-5 Galaxy transports, the largest planes in the world, is also being modernized, replacing control panels to comply with requirements to fly over European air space. Johnston estimated that each C-5 takes at least four to five months to undergo modification.
The modification will also affect the base”™s current flight simulator, which will be upgraded to meet new standards. “The simulator is the way most of our pilots train,” Johnston said. “Rather than training exercises using real C-5s, the simulator gives pilots a true flying experience and control over the aircraft.”
Johnston said more than 5,000 ANG reservists have been deployed from Stewart since 2000. Regular flights carrying Blackhawk helicopters, tanks and needed supplies are regularly flying to the Middle East each week. The C-5 Galaxy can hold up to 13 Blackhawk helicopters in its cavernous body and refuels itself while flying.
But transporting arms and helicopters to military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq are not the 105th”™s only duties. It is prepared for disaster assistance, terrorist attacks and humanitarian aid. The unit is training for an evacuation of West Point cadets and personnel as part of its regular exercises. “These are major operations but fortunately, they are drills. We need to be fully prepared if ever the need arises for a real evacuation, whether it is at West Point or in New York City.”
Johnston said the base is a “great location for staging operations. We are far enough away from New York City and Long Island, but close enough that state or federal agencies could bring in personnel and supplies.”
The wing is part of FEMA Region 2, a Veterans Affairs casualty response site and works with the Department of Health and Human Services through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The base is under consideration to be home to the new Lockheed C-17, which holds less cargo and does not have the capability to refuel in flight. It also has the ability to land on shorter airstrips.
“We are one of three ANG bases in the country under consideration for the new planes,” Johnston said. “If Stewart meets the criteria, we will receive eight of the new C-17s.”
Johnston said existing hangars that house its C-5 fleet will easily accommodate the C-17s if Stewart is chosen.
Johnston downplayed his role as wing commander, despite the amount of responsibilities. “We have remarkable people working here,” Johnston said, who earned his own pilot wings in 1974 at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado and has logged more than 7,000 flying hours.
After a recent presentation to the Stewart Airport Commission, Johnston and members of his staff visited the new Galaxy Café at Richmor Aviation, a fixed-base operator at Stewart International Airport. And to show they are, indeed, keeping the local economy pumped, everyone ordered lunch.
