Fayetteville leaders concerned over Air Force move to inactivate Fort Bragg's 440th Airlift Wing

Local leaders are concerned and, in some cases, outraged by news the Air Force is moving forward on plans to inactivate a Fort Bragg unit.

The Air Force decision to open a clearing house for airmen of the 440th Airlift Wing disregards Congress and flies in the face of a promise made by new Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, they said.

The clearing house opening this weekend will help usher the bulk of the 1,200-man 440th Airlift Wing to new units.

The move comes despite the Air Force not having issued a congressionally mandated report that was meant to preempt the inactivation of the Air Force Reserve unit.

In a two-page letter to Secretary of the Air Force Debra Lee James, Sen. Thom Tillis said he was distressed by news of the clearing house, which coincided with Carter's first day in office.

Carter publicly promised Tillis, a first-term Republican, he would sit down and discuss the 440th's future with local leaders.

Carter, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jack Reed, a former Fort Bragg paratrooper, also were sent copies of the letter.

Mike Lynch, director of military relations for the Fayetteville Regional Chamber, said officials were surprised to learn of the clearing house, which coincides with a 440th drill weekend.

Unit leaders have said the clearing house isn't mandatory, but urged airmen to participate, calling it the "best option" for airmen in the unit.

Critics have called the clearing house an attempt to gut the 440th, making it operationally obsolete and thus ripe for inactivation.

Much of the outrage is focused on the move coming ahead of an Air Force report required by the National Defense Authorization Act. That report calls for the Air Force to justify the movement of C-130s, the type of plane flown by the unit. It also allows Congress time to review the report before plans related to plane movements, including the inactivation of the 440th, could take place.

Tillis' letter calls the clearing house - and efforts to move airmen from the unit in general - a violation of the spirit of Congress's directions.

Lynch, who heads the "Save the 440th Coalition," said the clearing house appears to be an effort to sidestep congressional intent. He said efforts to save the unit now appear to have been part of a "rigged game" with the Air Force.

"The community as a whole is outraged," he said. "I just don't know what else the local community can do other than look to their congressional representatives."

Officials have previously said the unit, which once had 1,400 airmen, provided $77million in local economic impact.

But Lynch said the reasons for keeping the unit go beyond economics, it's personal. Many airmen are neighbors, coworkers and friends, he said.

The unit also makes strategic sense.

Without the 440th Airlift Wing, there would be no permanent Air Force planes stationed at Fort Bragg, which is home to the Army's airborne and special operations forces, including several units tasked with deploying anywhere in the world on short notice.

Several members of Fort Bragg's congressional delegation have expressed displeasure and concern over the clearing house.

A spokeswoman for Republican Rep. Richard Hudson said he was "very, very invested" in helping stop the unit's inactivation.

"I am outraged the Pentagon has taken premature action without fully consulting Congress as required by law," Hudson said in a statement. "This is as shortsighted as it is naive."

Democratic Rep. David Price said the Air Force's actions "may be premature, since they come before the release of a report designed to determine the best course forward."

Price said keeping the 440th running made more sense than the alterative - bringing in temporary crews to Fort Bragg from Air Force bases across the country.

"I have long been a supporter of maintaining the 440th Airlift Wing at Fort Bragg because co-location improves military readiness, makes sense strategically, and provides substantial economic benefit to the Fayetteville community," Price said.

Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers said the Air Force is having an adverse impact on Fort Bragg and the 440th Airlift Wing.

"These decisions are unfortunately destabilizing and hollowing out the 440th Airlift Wing before the review process has yet to be completed," she said. "The decision to inactivate the 440th Airlift Wing is woefully short-sighted and injects unnecessary risk to military readiness."

The clearing house is the latest step toward inactivation in a saga that began last year, when unit officials who thought they were set to receive newer model cargo planes after years of waiting and millions of dollars in upgrades to facilities instead learned the Air Force planned to inactivate the 440th.

Tillis' letter details the Air Force's broader plans to reform its "total force" in part by inactivating Reserve units tied with active Army units, like those found on Fort Bragg, in favor of keeping active duty Air Force units.

But Tillis said other units do not have the day-to-day tactical mission that is unique to the 440th and that inactivating the unit would create unreasonable risks to readiness at a time when threats abroad appear to be growing.

He said other units that would be called on to fill in on the 440th mission contend with the "tyranny of distance" created by bureaucratic, logistical and operational delays or cancellations.

Substituting the 440th wholesale with outside units would be "inadequate, inefficient and shortsighted," he said.

"Pope (Field) is the busiest airport in the world for the performance of training requiring tactical airlift," he said. ".This is not a parochial issue, deactivating the 440th is a tactical and strategic mistake that will impact the readiness of America's rapid reaction and Special Forces."

The clearing house targets the majority of the 440th's 1,200 remaining airmen. A separate clearing house will be held for the others, which include civilians and Air Force Reserve technicians.

Brig. Gen. James Scanlan, commander of the 440th Airlift Wing, said the clearing house was meant "to provide our airmen with options, and assist them finding positions prior to the inactivation."

According to Scanlan's message, all traditional reservist positions will be eliminated and go unfunded starting April 1, after funding for the unit officially runs out.

Airmen will be able to stay with the unit until Sept. 30 (the end of the federal fiscal year), Scanlan said, but enlisted airmen would be ineligible for promotions and all traditional reservists remaining would eventually be transferred to the Individual Ready Reserve. Airmen in the IRR do not receive pay and are not required to drill.