Air Guard opens $8.3 million building at Fort Smith base

The top Arkansas military brass was in Fort Smith at the 188th Fighter Wing base on Wednesday (Feb. 23) to formally open a more than $8.3 million support building that was constructed with federal stimulus dollars.

Maj. Gen. William Wofford, the adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard, 188th Wing Commander Col. Tom Anderson, and Dr. Jerry Stewart, chairman of the 188th Fighter Wing/Fort Chaffee Community Council, were some of the officials present for the ribbon cutting.

According to the Arkansas National Guard, the $8.3 million project is one of only 10 projects within the Air National Guard to be funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The 24,200-square-foot Base Operation Support building will house the Civil Engineering Squadron for the base.

Energy-saving features incorporated into the building include solar water heating, geothermal heating and cooling and rain water retention for use in the bathroom areas.

Anderson thanked community leaders in the Fort Smith area for banding together in 2005 to save the base from the BRAC closure list. He said more than $30 million has been invested in the base since the BRAC closure recommendation was overturned.

During May 2005, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission was faced with 834 closings or realignment recommendations from the Department of Defense. Closing the 188th and reassigning its F-16 fighters was one of the DOD recommendations. The commission had to review the DOD info and make its own recommendations to President George Bush by Sept. 8, 2005. BRAC members visited 184 locations and held nine regional hearings in the process.

A contingent of Fort Smith business and civic leaders lobbied to keep the base open, saying the training area in Fort Smith, room to grow at the Fort Smith Regional Airport, the firing range at Fort Chaffee and training airspace in the area was too valuable for the military to abandon. The BRAC members agreed, and moved a squadron of A-10 Thunderbolts to Fort Smith.

“I would like to say ‘Thank you,’ to the community council” and others who rallied to save the 188th, Anderson told the crowd.

Stewart said pulling together on the 188th is a reflection of the city’s ability to come together in times of need.

“The community came together as a team,” he said in explaining what it took to fight for the 188th.

Part of the new operation includes a new access road onto Phoenix Avenue. The access on the north side of the base was required for the construction project to meet anti terrorism force protection and unified facilities criteria. The new gate will be limited to commercial deliveries and will not be used for personnel or visitor access, according to previous Air Guard statements.