The future of the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station looks brighter after a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta.
Panetta told air reserve personnel on Thursday that the base would remain open and that he would work to find a new mission for its 107th Airlift Wing, which was set to be decimated by federal budget cuts.
“We’re committed to maintaining this base for the future,” Panetta said. “It’s important geographically, it’s important to our mission going forward.”
The commitment was greeted with cautious optimism by base officials, who – like Panetta – pointed out that the final budget process is far from complete.
But a personal assurance by such a high-ranking official – and his pledge to invest millions more in the base – was seen as a major breakthrough.
“That means the world to us,” said Col. Jim S. McCready, commander of the 107th Air National Guard unit. “He gave us his word he would [help] this place continue to be viable.”
As a sign of support, Panetta said the federal government plans to build a $6 million flight simulator at the base while maintaining a strong reserve force and upgrading eight of its C-130 aircraft.
The stark commitment came as a surprise to those who viewed the event as more of a courtesy to Rep. Kathleen C. Hochul, D-Hamburg, who invited the secretary.
The congresswoman has championed the base’s cause since word of the military cuts surfaced, and as she mounts a re-election campaign against former Erie County Executive Chris Collins, a Republican.
But the visit also allowed officials to tell the former CIA director why they believe the base’s nearly 3,000 jobs should remain.
The selling points included the base’s retention rate, which hovers around 95 percent; cooperation among the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard Units; and recent deployments to Afghanistan.
In addition, McCready and Col. Allan L. Swartzmiller pointed out the base’s proximity to the Canadian border and its efforts to make the base more of a federal campus, with a military processing center and possible plans for a Border Patrol station.
But officials said Panetta was particularly impressed with the base’s relationship with the residents of Niagara County and Western New York.
“I think we sold this area,” Hochul said. “We all know why it is so unique, and we just needed him to see firsthand as well. I think we got him to think of us in an entirely different way.”
The focus now, officials said, is finding a new mission for the 107th, which under a plan announced in February would lose all of its jobs, including those of 580 part-time Air National Guardsmen.
To make itself more attractive to the federal government, the 107th is willing to take on any number of missions, from its current tactical airlift duties to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, which encompasses a broad range of missions.
Panetta, the first defense secretary to visit the base, also will recommend that Air Force brass consider the unit for the burgeoning cybersecurity field.
“We [would like] not an older mission where planes are going to be retired and sent to a graveyard,” McCready said, “but a newer, cutting-edge mission that is going to stand on its own for an extended period of time.”
The base also has been floated as a candidate for a new Air Force research facility that could partner with the University at Buffalo or another of the region’s nearly three dozen colleges and universities.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said Panetta seems interested in the intelligence/surveillance missions because of Niagara’s proximity to other bases at Fort Drum near Watertown and in Syracuse, which Schumer said have potential for drone missions.
“We see this as a step forward, not only to keep it open, but to make sure it doesn’t shrink and it has a mission for decades and decades to come,” Schumer said.
The senator called Panetta, his former Congressional roommate, a “thoughtful, perceptive and caring” man who understands the base’s importance to the Western New York economy.
But even before he delivered his assurances, Panetta spoke at length about the necessary defense cuts his department must make.
“I can’t reduce the defense budget by $487 billion and not create some pain – that’s the nature of it,” Panetta said. “But we’ve tried to do it in a responsible way.”
Panetta and base officials said the future of the Niagara base – and other bases – would be perilous if Congress does not reach a debt deal by Jan. 1.
In that case, draconian cuts would slash another $500 billion from the defense budget, in addition to the $487 billion already scheduled.
Though many say that situation is unlikely, base officials stressed it is possible.
“We know he’s got to make tough decisions in the future,” said Swartzmiller, commander of the 914th Air Force Reserve Airlift Wing. “[But] we walk away a little happier today knowing that he knows who we are, that he’s seen our base, and that he’s made comments about our long-term future here.”
A recent pledge by the White House to find a mission for a similar unit in Ohio spurred base officials in Niagara to push for another mission, as well.
Political undertones preceded the pledge in Ohio, a key battleground state for President Obama, and they appeared evident on a local scale Thursday.
But while the National Republican Congressional Committee was quick to portray the visit as a political stunt, Collins applauded his opponent for setting up the visit.
“Some things are more important than politics, and saving the [base] is one of them,” Collins said in a statement.
Meanwhile, members of the WNY Peace Center and the Occupy Buffalo movement planned a protest to draw attention to the issue of drone strikes in Pakistan.
The group opposes future military missions and says the air base should be turned into “a gigantic solar array, generating hundreds of peaceful, never-going-away, well-paying jobs.”
The base’s jobs appear to be safe until the end of the 2013 fiscal year.

email: cspecht@buffnews.com