C-130 News: N.C. congressional leaders seek to protect training of Fort Bragg paratroopers

[casey]

Members of Congress are moving forward on attempts to protect the training of Fort Bragg paratroopers, even as Air Force leaders say they are on track to increase their support to Fort Bragg when compared with last year.

Reps. Renee Ellmers and Richard Hudson have filed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would create additional congressional oversight when it comes to airborne operations on Fort Bragg, to ensure the Air Force is providing the promised support.

The House version of that bill already includes a provision aimed at protecting funding for the Global Response Force, which is largely composed of the 82nd Airborne Division, 18th Airborne Corps and other Fort Bragg units.

The GRF is tasked with deploying on short notice anywhere in the world in support of combat operations or humanitarian relief.

The call for added congressional oversight comes days after the Air Force notified elected leaders that it was moving forward on plans to inactivate the 440th Airlift Wing. That unit, part of the Air Force Reserve, owns the only C-130s permanently stationed at Fort Bragg.

The unit, which has been facing inactivation for more than two years, has dwindled from more than 1,200 airmen to about 500 and stopped participating in airborne operations earlier this year due to its smaller force.

At one time, the 440th provided about one-third of all Air Force support to airborne operations on Fort Bragg. Its planes and crews also were among the first to respond to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, carrying parts of the Global Response Force to the humanitarian mission.

In their absence, Fort Bragg paratroopers have had to increasingly rely on outside air crews to fly in to support jumps and heavy drop training, or have turned to Army helicopters to fill gaps.

In recent months, several training exercises were canceled because of a lack of Air Force support.

This week, Air Force leaders reiterated their pledge to support Fort Bragg training in response to questions about failures in those efforts earlier this year.

A spokesman for Air Mobility Command said the Army requested 7,100 paratrooper drops in March, but only 6,100 were supported through the Air Force's scheduling process, the Joint Airborne/Air Transportability Training Program.

"The difference in the requested number of paratroopers versus the actual airdrop total was a result of cancellations due to weather, user cancellations, aircraft maintenance and missions redirected for higher priority missions," said Air Force Capt. Nick Plante.

"The U.S. Air Force remains fully committed to providing tactical airlift support to the Army, now and in the future," Plante said.

He noted that despite the shortcomings in March, the Air Force had dropped more than 39,000 paratroopers in the first seven months of the fiscal year, "which is on track to provide 1.5 times more than the fiscal year 2015 totals, even with decreasing 440th Airlift Wing participation."

Air Force support to Fort Bragg has been called into question since the inactivation of the 440th Airlift Wing was announced two years ago, but concerns from congressional leaders were raised when it was revealed earlier this year that the Air Force was falling short of meeting the minimum training requirements.

At the time, Sen. Thom Tillis told The Fayetteville Observer that the Air Force was failing Fort Bragg.

Ellmers, who visited with the 440th Airlift Wing commander and Air Force leaders this week, said that Observer article "caused heads to turn" among Air Force and Air Force Reserve leaders.

Ellmers, a Republican from Dunn, said she believes the Air Force is paying closer attention to its Fort Bragg support now that it's clear that Congress and others are keeping a close watch.

She said the quarterly reports required by her amendment would be another step in improving that oversight.

"We're going to be watching this," Ellmers said. "This is about accountability. We are going to be on top of this."

Ellmers said much of her visit was focused on the fate of the 500 airmen still assigned to the 440th Airlift Wing. She said she is convinced the wing's commander, Col. Karl A. Schmitkons, will do everything in his power to ensure those airmen are cared for and find new positions.

However, Ellmers said she's less convinced the Air Force has the same concerns.

"It's not a priority," she said. Instead, she said leaders are focused on budgets.

That was creating a short-sighted view that could be detrimental to the readiness of the nation's quick reaction forces.

"I'm afraid they're just not looking at reality," Ellmers said.

She also said she doubted the Air Force claims that outside air crews could support Fort Bragg at less cost than the 440th Airlift Wing.

She also said the hometown wing provides flexibility if weather derails an exercise and prevents training from being canceled by bad weather far from Bragg.

Ellmers said that after more than two years, the Air Force has yet to provide a detailed accounting explaining how flying crews from as far as Washington and Alaska would save money.

"I have a hard time believing it," she said.

The amendment, if approved, would require the secretaries of the Army and the Air Force to submit quarterly reports on parachute jumps conducted at Fort Bragg and Air Force support for those jumps.

The reports, due from adoption until January 2020, would need to include the number of training missions requested by the Army and those filled by the Air Force, along with reasons for any shortfalls.

Tillis is expected to push for a similar amendment in the Senate version of the bill.

Meanwhile, the NDAA's Global Response Force provision already has been included in the House bill's language. That was spearheaded by Rep. Chris Gibson, a New York Republican and a former brigade commander in the 82nd Airborne Division who led a force on a short-notice deployment to Haiti to provide humanitarian relief after an earthquake in 2010.

That provision would require the comptroller general of the United States to asses challenges facing the GRF from fiscal pressures or other areas and how those may have affected the force.

Gibson said the military has stated its commitment to the GRF, but the $25 million allotted for GRF training as part of the 2017 European Reassurance Initiative budget is less than half what it was for fiscal 2016.

The bill states that congressional leaders believe the GRF force needs a minimum of "four joint, collective training opportunities during the fiscal year focusing on 'no- notice' alert, marshal and deploy operations" and are concerned the decrease in funding and competition for resources could harm several aspects of GRF readiness, to include manning, equipping, local training, logistical and other support.

Source: http://www.fayobserver.com/military/nc-congressional-leaders-seek-to-protect-training-of-fort-bragg/article_20f8a6cc-3753-50ff-85a2-291744c90030.html

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