'Please Take Notes On This': Joni Ernst Confronts Air Force Leaders Over Delay In Key Project

Forbes Breaking News

At a Senate Armed Services Committee prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) questioned top Air Force Officials.

Transcript

00:00That's a good answer. Very good. And your time is expired. Thank you, Mr.

00:05Chairman. Thank you very much. Senator Ernst. Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and

00:12thanks for our witnesses for being here today. And I know all of you do murder

00:16boards before you come in front of us, so you all should know exactly what I am

00:22going to talk about today. And General Saltzman, you can take a breather. We're

00:27not going to talk Space Force today. But everyone knows I'm a proud National

00:33Guardsman, and even though it was Army Guard, I appreciate our Air Guard brothers

00:38and sisters. So I deeply understand the critical role our Air National Guard

00:44plays in defending our homeland. The Air Force's top priority, as outlined in the

00:50fiscal year 26 posture statement, is defending the homeland. And that starts

00:56with maintaining a geographically distributed force. So we're going to talk

01:04a little bit about our Air National Guard in Iowa and the 185th Refueling Wing. A

01:11very important unit to the Midwest. And General Alvin, I've written down a few

01:18phrases you've said over the course of the hearing. More tails in the air.

01:24Survivability. Resilience. And one that I love, when the platforms get there, the

01:33MILCON is there. In 2003, our F-16s were taken away from the Sioux City Iowa Air

01:41National Guard. With the Air Force's commitment that when they received the KC-135,

01:47they would have a new runway that would support the weight of the 135. That has

01:56not happened. Twenty years and the MILCON has not been there. Secretary Mink, please

02:04take notes on this as well. Twenty years the Air Force has let this go. The fear in Sioux

02:11City now is that because we cannot support the 46, that we will never upgrade to the

02:1946. We will lose our unit. I am really concerned about this. This has gone on for

02:27way too long and I've talked to way too many people. In the Air Force and the Air

02:31National Guard. And it has not happened. We are concentrating these tankers all in

02:37various regions. They're concentrated. We need geographic disbursement. Let me talk

02:44to you a little bit about Sioux City and the history there and how proud we are of

02:50those units that have occupied this airfield. And let's just start by saying

02:56the name of the airfield is the Colonel Bud Day Airfield. For those folks in the

03:02Air Force that don't know who Colonel Bud Day is, you need to go back and figure

03:07out your history. This gentleman is a Sioux City native that was awarded the

03:13Medal of Honor and the Air Force Cross. And I believe he's probably the only person

03:19in the Air Force to have done that. He grew up there and he ended his career in

03:24Sioux City. Other folks notable that are related to units that have crossed

03:29through Sioux City. Jimmy Stewart, famous actor. He's also a cousin to my great

03:37grandfather. Okay, Louis Zamperini, known for the movie Unbroken. Lieutenant Colonel

03:44Kelly Cook, whose remains have never been returned from Vietnam. These are all folks

03:51that are connected to this area. We have a proud history there. And I'd just like to

03:57know how many more times, General Alvin and Secretary Mink, that I have to bring

04:02this up in personal meetings in my office and in front of the committee to

04:08get a commitment to get the MILCON done for this runway. General Alvin, please.

04:14Thank you, Senator Ernst and Ernst. And also thank you for sort of publicly

04:20acknowledging Bud Day as well, because I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of Google

04:23searches. I knew him. He is phenomenal. So when we first spoke about this, you and I

04:28spoke about this two years ago, and I said, yes ma'am, we're gonna do that. And

04:32we started working on the design. Last year we put the money in to start towards

04:3635%. As you know, the MILCON has to go through the design phase and has to get

04:41into a certain maturation before it goes from design. It can compete for funding.

04:45It needs to get through the 35% design. It is now a 65% design, which means I can now, if it

04:51competes in the MILCON prioritization with everything else, then it wins. If not, I

04:55have the opportunity for it to compete in my unfunded priority list. I couldn't do

04:59that until we got past the 35% design. We are now past the 35% design. So I feel

05:05like my communications with you have been fairly consistent, and we'll continue

05:08that into the future. But can we have a commitment that this will be done? You

05:14have my commitment that I will continue to push on this, and yes, I think that's the

05:18key is it's all about the funding to be able to support it. The design work is

05:22now, it's limiting any of the obstacles on our path to being able to actually do

05:26it. But now we're at 65% design. Thank you, sir. Secretary Mink. Yes, Senator. As the

05:33as the chief mentioned, it's 65% complete design rate. We can now start working it

05:37into the the ranking for MILCON. And once I see that, I'll make sure I come

05:42talk to you about it, Senator. Okay, thank you. I appreciate the commitment today in

05:45front of the public, and we look forward to seeing this completed in the near future.

Category

Transcript

Recommended