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Air Force Secretary Peters visits Air Mobility Warfare Center, McGuire

MCGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. (USTCNS) --- McGuire's mobility operations and the future of the base's C-141 fleet were two of several topics covered by the Secretary of the Air Force during his visit here June 30.

Whit Peters visited the McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., area to attend the Air Mobility Warfare Center Phoenix Readiness graduation and get a first-hand look at the base.

"McGuire is one of our most important mobility bases," said Peters. "Mobility is the key. The fact is, the strategic ability that's at McGuire is really the key asset the United States offers to the world."

Other topics Peters touched on include the usefulness of the Phoenix Readiness course, the placement of C-17s, the future of C-141 Starlifters, recruiting, pay increases and base closures.

"McGuire and this center [AMWC] are certainly at the heart of the ability of the tankers and strat lifters to create a unit in the field which can quickly off-load cargo and on-load people," explained Peters.

Another topic Peters addressed is the cleanup of the Boeing Michigan Aeronautical Research Center Missile Facility.

"We're aware that we have to clean up BOMARC," said Peters. "We're having serious discussions with the congressional delegation from New Jersey about how to deal with the cleanup. Leaving it there is not a good option. That's simply the consensus of all Federal agencies who've looked at it."

Peters said plans for removal should be done this year.

"The Air Force has cleaned up a lot of toxic material all over the world," he said. "We've cleaned up huge amounts of land very successfully, and we always try to cooperate with cities and others."

From cleanup to the future of airlift at McGuire, Peters didn't skip a beat. Although he said he didn't know if the base will get the Air Force's newest airlifter, the C-17 Globemaster III, he said it was being discussed during the Mobility Requirement Study-5.

"If everyone who wants a C-17 got one, you'd have one at every Air Force base across the country," said Peters.
Peters said the MRS-5 determines the airlift requirements for the next five to 10 years.

"We know we've got more airlift requirements than we've had in the past," Peters explained. "We also know that we're not meeting the requirements today that were levied several years ago by the Air Force, primarily because the C-5 [Galaxy] is not operating as effectively as we had hoped it would."

To increase the effectiveness of the fleet, the Air Force initiated major upgrade programs to the C-5 and about 50 percent of the remaining Starlifters. The C-17 takes up the slack, said Peters.

"We're upgrading a portion of the C-141 fleet," said Peters.

"Roughly half will be converted to the "C" model. A glass cockpit-model, the C-141Cs should boast better mission-capable rates and won't be retired until 2006 under the current plan. That date is subject to some consideration based on mobility requirements."

Whether the date changes or not, there is no escaping the retirement of the airframe. "Unfortunately, the C-141 is a very old airplane, and we've got to retire it," Peters said.
Peters also discussed recruiting. He said the yearly goals are only estimated to be off by around 1,000 people at worst.

"Recruitment is actually going extremely well," Peters explained. "Our yearly goal is 34,000. Right now, it looks like we'll make 33,000, and we're going up. It looks like we might make 34,000 by the end of the fiscal year."

To reach the recruitment goals, the Air Force placed many temporary recruiters in the field and offers recruits benefit packages similar to those offered by other services.

"In the Air Force, we've always had the luxury of being the first choice of everybody who wanted to go in the military," Peters said. "Until recently, that gave us more than enough people to fill the requirements. We've not been able to meet our requirement for the last fiscal year, but starting this year, we've gone from about 800 recruiters to about 1,400."

Although new recruits are given incentives to join the Air Force, the Air Force is taking steps to improve the financial welfare of all its members.

"Military pay has been increased, it will be increased in the 2001 budget as well," said Peters. The increase is a half point above the cost of hiring labor, which is significantly above the consumer price index, explained Peters.

"These are real gains that people get in the military," he said.

"Now, having said that, people don't join the military to get rich. I think that's a fundamental and well-understood point. What I think attracts people and holds people to this Air Force is that we are an incredibly competent team. The Air Force is a fun place to work. Hard work, sure, but a fun place to work."

The places to work in the Air Force won't change this year, but eventually bases will start being shut down again. The closures are designed to maximize the use of Air Force people and assets because the work force is smaller and stretched thinly across bases.

"There's no legislation that's going to be passed this year," Peters said. "I think there is a growing consensus that the next Congress is going to have to pass some sort of base closure law. We're 40 percent smaller than we were 10 years ago ... and we haven't reduced the number of bases by any measure … ramp space, hangar space, you name it. So, we have too few assets and too few people trying to cover the workload of too many bases. At some point we have got to close a few bases." (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).

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