casey Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 The long, sad goodbye is coming to an end. The few remaining members of the 440th Airlift Wing will case the colors this weekend. Ceremonies on Fort Bragg and in downtown Fayetteville will bid the unit farewell. The formality of inactivating Fort Bragg's last resident airlift unit will come sometime before the end of this month. It will nearly coincide with the end of the federal fiscal year, which is appropriate, because it appears that the Air Force decision to close the wing was related to federal budget woes. Military budgets are still subject to the blind, meat-ax cuts required by Congress' budget sequestration law, the insane mandate of across-the-board spending reductions that must be made without regard to spending priorities or national defense needs. Several members of this state's congressional delegation have told us this summer that they believe the demise of the 440th was a direct result of sequestration, and that it might not have happened otherwise. Our lawmakers, along with many other local and state officials, fought for two years to save the 440th. Nobody could see the logic in removing local airlift capability from the home base of this nation's rapid-response military force, especially at a time when the Army has sharply increased the tempo of airborne training. Flying in from Air Force bases as far away as the West Coast for jump training makes little sense. And in the months after the last of the 440th's C-130s departed, it appears the Air Force failed to meet even the Army's bare-minimum requests for training missions. Air Force officials say that in recent months they have improved their scheduling capability and are doing a better job of getting aircraft here when needed. They may end the year with more training missions accomplished than in the previous year - albeit short of the Army's goals. At its peak, the 440th had a dozen C-130H Hercules aircraft at Pope Field, supported by more than 1,200 airmen. The last C-130 left in late June, flying to the Air Force "boneyard" in Arizona. About 270 airmen remain here, staying behind to turn out the lights. They'll be gone soon too. On Sunday morning, Fort Bragg and community leaders will head to a hangar on Pope Field for the casing of the 440th's colors. The ceremony is set for 9:40 a.m. It will be followed by another ceremony downtown at 1 p.m. at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum, which will dedicate a paver stone to honor the 440th's service. We stand with the rest of this community in saluting the skill, dedication and excellent service of the 440th. We hope the unit will pass this way again. Source: http://www.fayobserver.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-a-fond-farewell-to-fort-bragg-s-last/article_61248557-b1e8-58ef-aea3-bdfd8637e4be.html Image: http://www.military.com View full article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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