Arnold AFB in the hunt for combat training center
By Herman Wang Washington Bureau
Chattanooga Times-Free Press
June 4, 2007

WASHINGTON — Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., is leading a united Tennessee congressional delegation in his effort to convince the Air Force to house its new Common Battlefield Airmen Training program at Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma.

Winning the program would result in 800 new jobs on the base.

His letter, signed by the state’s nine congressmen and two senators, went to Gen. William Looney, the commanding officer for the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command, pressing Arnold AFB’s case. Rep. Davis previously met with Pentagon officials to discuss Arnold AFB’s capacity to house the training program.

The Tullahoma facility, about 80 miles northwest of Chattanooga, has an edge over its competitors, Moody AFB near Valdosta, Ga., and Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, La., Rep. Davis said.

“We have three airports within a 60-minute drive in Huntsville, Chattanooga and Nashville,” he said. “We’ve got a much larger volume of land that’s usable.”

The Air Force announced plans to create a battlefield training program for airmen after U.S. military action against the Taliban and al-Qaida in the mountains of Afghanistan illus- trated a need for more intense ground combat training. The Air Force is expected to announce its selection in January.

“(The battlefield training) would be an extension of current airman training,” said Joel Fortner, Arnold AFB spokesman. “What it’s going to do is give all deploying airmen a common skill set for operating on the ground and defending themselves in the event they need to. If we’re going to be deploying airmen to hostile areas, they need to have ground training.”

The program would train up to 14,400 airmen annually with a 25-day course to improve their combat survival skills, such as small arms firing and land navigation, along with a daily physical training regimen, before deploying overseas to locations such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

The program will require 166 new buildings and 9,000 acres of land for training, according to a Department of Defense notice of intent.

Tullahoma figures to gain a lot should Arnold AFB be selected. The base, which sits on 40,000 acres just east of the city near Manchester, Tenn., serves as an engineering development center and is the world’s largest aerospace ground test facility, with about 2,400 employees and an annual economic impact of $675 million.

“It would be a huge boon for us,” Tullahoma Mayor Troy Bisby said. “We’re in large part dependent on the test facility out there right now. Our businesses obviously depend on the base, and several of our citizens are employed there or related to somebody working there.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Arnold AFB could be ready “virtually overnight.” The state has committed $1 million to any additional infrastructure needed.

“It is clear that Arnold has the land, location, facilities and room for expansion that would provide a seamless start-up,” Sen. Corker said.

However, officials in Georgia and Louisiana also are lobbying on behalf of their Air Force bases.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, RGa., recently sent a letter to Air Force leaders encouraging them to house the training program at Moody AFB. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s deputy press secretary, Marie Gordon, said the senator “is always supportive of Georgia’s military facilities and personnel.”

The Air Force is completing its environmental impact assessment for all three finalist bases and will host public hearings at each base.

The final environmental impact statement will be released in November.

The Air Force will host public hearings at each of the three bases under consideration for a new training program. The Arnold Air Force Base session will be July 10 in the Coffee County Administrative Plaza, 1329 MacArthur St., in Manchester, Tenn.