2 Ohio Air Guard bases slated to close will get new missions instead

6/27/2006

COLUMBUS Two Ohio Air National Guard bases that were to be closed under the military s realignment plan will remain open with new missions, saving up to 1,400 jobs, the Guard said today.

The 178th Fighter Wing in Springfield will lose its jet-fighter training unit, with about 400 jobs, under the realignment plan announced last year. Instead, the facility will become home to a unit of military intelligence analysts, the Ohio Adjutant General s Department announced.

The 179th Airlift Wing in Mansfield, which was to lose 1,000 jobs and its eight C-130 Hercules cargo planes, has been taken off the closed list and is in the running for a set of new cargo planes that are in development, the Guard said.

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