Air Force belt tightening likely to hit Scott hard

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/01/28/181267/air-force-belt-tightening-likely.html

Air Force belt tightening likely to hit Scott hard
Mike Fitzgerald | Belleville News-Democrat
Posted on Monday, January 28, 2013

SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE — Some of the tightest austerity measures in a generation have led top Air Force commanders to cancel air shows and other unnecessary flight operations, to freeze civilian hiring and to prepare for unpaid furloughs for thousands of civilian workers.

Scott employs about 5,500 civilian workers, plus more than 7,000 military personnel from the Air Force, Navy and Army across a wide range of specialties and assigned to the major military organizations headquartered there. The air base's economic impact on the St. Louis region is estimated at $3 billion annually.

~snip~

The cost-cutting taking place at Scott -- as well as other military installations nationwide -- stems from the U.S. Congress' failure to pass a true budget for 2012.

~snip~

Even bigger budget cuts, however, are set to take effect by March 1 if a polarized U.S. Congress fails to avert the budgetary time bomb known as "sequestration." It would slash nearly 10 percent from most Air Force programs, though military personnel and war-related operations would be exempted.


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Other states/organizations that have bitched about military cuts over the last week:

http://www.stripes.com/news/us/dod-s-46-000-temporary-workers-may-face-firing-1.205375
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/virginia-faces-1-4b-loss-under-planned-navy-cuts-1.205423
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2013/01/ap-study-carson-smaller-army-012413/
http://hamptonroads.com/2013/01/navy-orders-cuts-begin-now-thousands-be-fired
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/01/24/few-army-employees-would-escape-furloughs/?wprss=rss_politics

[Scuba]

1. This will be interesting to watch. The 375th Medical Group serves a whole lot of Airmen ...

... and their families. During the Viet Nam war it was flooded with patients and the C9A "Nightingale" medi-vac jet ambulances were headquartered there. This should be the last thing touched in any budget-cutting.


BTW, I'm proud to say that during my time stationed at Scott, not a single VC managed to get east of the Mississippi River.