Press Releases
November 3, 2009
Delegation Meets with New AMC Commander
Lawmakers Urge Air Force Leaders to Make Grand Forks Tankers a Top Priority
Washington – Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan and Congressman Earl Pomeroy today met with Air Force leadership to again make the case for expanding the UAV mission at Grand Forks Air Force Base and for basing the next generation tanker there.
The delegation met with Lt. Gen. Raymond E. Johns Jr., the Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs for the Air Force. Later this month, Gen. Johns will be promoted and become the new commander of Air Mobility Command, at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. Air Mobility Command oversees Grand Forks Air Force Base.
The meeting served as an opportunity to meet the new AMC commander and stress the importance of preserving robust missions at Grand Forks after the current fleet of KC-135 tankers leave. The base is now scheduled to receive a fleet of Predator and Global Hawk UAVs. In this meeting the delegation urged Johns to add several hundred additional active duty personnel who would control UAVs that are based overseas. They also stressed the need to acquire the Air Force’s next generation of refueling tankers and base them at Grand Forks.
“Updating our tanker fleet is crucial if we are to continue to project American military power around the globe,” the delegation said in a joint statement. “General Johns knows the tankers are vital to the strategic defense of our nation and that we need to get these new tankers off the assembly line and into the air as soon as possible.”
America’s aerial tankers are the oldest planes in the Air Force inventory. The average age of the KC-135 — the main tanker aircraft — is more than 45 years. Grand Forks Air Force Base is home to the 319th Air Refueling Wing, which operates and maintains KC-135R Stratotankers.
The Air Force has drafted plans to replace the nation's fleet of KC-135s with next generation tankers. The Congressional delegation has long urged the Air Force to base some of the next generation tankers at Grand Forks Air Force base when they are eventually acquired.
The Delegation also extended a welcome to Col. Donald L. Shaffer as the new commander of the base and thanked outgoing commander Col. John E. Michel for all his leadership and accomplishments while assigned to the base. Col. Shaffer will take command of Grand Forks Air Force Base from Col. Michel on Nov. 13. Colonels Shaffer and Michel were not in attendance at today’s meeting.
