The Stewart Air National Guard Base might be best recognized by the huge C-17s flying overhead, but a little known secret is that the 105th Airlift Wing ”“ 1,433 members strong ”“ is a huge economic generator for the mid-Hudson Valley.
Stewart ANG is also home to the 213th Engineering Installation Squadron, whose workers lay cable and install communications at bases throughout the world; the U.S. Marines, both active duty and reservists; as well as other military support staff, bringing the total number of full- and part-time employees up to 2,619.
“We are the sixth largest employer in the county,” said Brig. Gen. Verle L. Johnston Jr., who has led the 105th Airlift Wing since 2007.
Stewart ANG and Marines will generate $105 million in payroll and spend $67 million on its operating and maintenance budget this year. Since most of the men and women stationed or employed at the New Windsor base live in the region, Johnston calculated a total of $213 million spent yearly in the local economy.
“We have been blessed with the tremendous support of the business community and the residents. It”™s been a very positive relationship for both sides,” he said.
“Many of the contracts at the base are let to local contractors whenever possible,” Johnston said. “We do believe in ”˜shopping locally”™ and want to see the region working.”
The base is currently undergoing a makeover, one that will replace its fleet of 13 aging C-5s ”“ Lockheed-Martin”™s largest military transport plane ”“ with nine C-17s, which started arriving in July. Johnston says the C-5s are more fuel efficient, quieter and can carry as much as 170,000 pounds or 18 pallets of cargo and require less manpower, maintenance and upkeep than their aging counterparts. The planes also have the ability to take off and land on shorter runways.
The changeover means pilots, mechanics and personnel will go back to school to learn about the new transport fleet.
“We were very fortunate to be chosen to be in this program,” Johnston told Stewart Airport Commission members during a presentation he made to them Nov. 29.
The 105th Airlift Wing expects the delivery of five more C-17s in 2012. That means the base”™s flight simulator, now configured for C-5s, will be upgraded to train C-17 pilots by late spring 2013.
A $15 million military construction project is in the works to modify two buildings on the base. The base”™s old firehouse is being modified to move Aerial Port personnel into that building and is nearing completion. The building those personnel are moving out of will be refurbished and 34,000 square feet added, becoming the new headquarters for the Security Forces Squadron. That project is expected to be completed by September 2012.
A new water distribution system is also being added since the base must have two sources of water. New Windsor had been the only supplier, now the town of Newburgh”™s water department will be getting a financial boost once the base hooks in.
“Many other projects ”“ upgrading our perimeter road, renovations to the wastewater lagoon ”“ won”™t be as noticeable as the renovation and construction of the new buildings,” Johnston said.
A $4 million solar farm, a research and development project that will be used to interpret the viability of solar farming in the northeast and supply some of the electricity used on the 250-plus acre base, is in progress.
“An environmental assessment is going on and engineers are deciding where to place the panels. They may be on one of the roofs of our hangars,” Johnston said. “It”™s still in the design phase.” That project will not start construction until fall 2012.
Stewart ANG also served as a base for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “We had FEMA”™s command control center here and 175 ambulances from all over the tristate area on the base during the tropical storms. They were sent out to move nursing home patients before the storm hit, and then moved them back once the danger was passed. We also had urban search and rescue teams here from Pennsylvania and Ohio. We”™re in a good central location between New York City, the Catskills and Long Island.”
Stewart will also see a shift in personnel, with more part-time employees than full-time, but it will leave the base in a much stronger position, Johnston said. “Our facilities and our planes will be up-to-date and much more modern and serve the area well for the next 25 to 30 years.”
