BRAC Vote To Take 183rd From Springfield, IL

Dave at The11thhour did a "live" blogging of the BRAC Commission decision to relocate the 183rd Air National Guard's F-16s to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Coverage was live on CSPAN-2. While I'm not an expert in base consolidation, I am concerned about the loss of the 183rd. I suspect that politics has played a significant role in deciding which communities gained units, and which communities lost units.

Springfield, Illinois is located between St. Louis, and Chicago, and the air unit there could play an important role in intercepting any terrorist controlled aircraft heading toward those cities. Illinois also leads the nation in the percentage of electricity supplied by nuclear power plants. Moving the air unit to the Republican state of Indiana is suspect because the Fort Wayne base ranked lower than the Springfield Base. Also cost associated to bringing Fort Wayne's base up to standards to accomadate the additional aircraft is seen as more costly than any proposed savings.

The Govenor of Illinois has promised legal action to stop the transfer.