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Friday, May 08, 2009
Mayor Forms Panel To Retain 'Tacos'
By Charles D. Brunt
Journal Staff Writer
Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez has formed a nine-member panel to work toward retaining a fighter mission for the New Mexico Air National Guard's 150th Fighter Wing.
The wing, known since its days in Vietnam as the Tacos, is slated to lose all 23 of its aging F-16 Fighting Falcons in just over a year — nearly a decade before new F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighters might be available as replacements for the wing at Kirtland Air Force Base.
The Tacos' fate may have been sealed when Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced last month that the Pentagon will buy only 187 F-22 Raptors — a $150 million stealth fighter Maj. Gen. Kenny Montoya, the state Guard's adjutant general, had hoped would replace his F-16s.
Although the life of the 150th's F-16s could be extended a few years with additional maintenance and fewer flight hours, Montoya said the gap between their retirement and the availability of the F-35s could end the Tacos' 61-year history as a fighter wing.
Chávez said that gap — along with the loss of about 1,000 jobs and the potential impact on the 150th's home base — is the new group's top concerns.
"It will make us vulnerable to a future BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) process because they (the Tacos) are a critical part of that interconnected series of functions that go on at Kirtland," Chávez said Thursday in announcing
formation of the group, which he said will work closely with the state's congressional delegation.
The 150th is Kirtland's only deployable fighter wing.
The mayor questioned the Air Force's decision to retain some F-16 units while phasing out others. For example, he said an F-16 wing in Vermont, which has far less training space and fewer days of flyable weather than New Mexico, is keeping its fighters.
"Once I had a briefing and talked with the other entities and individuals involved, I'm convinced that this was not a merit-based decision," Chávez said. "So we're going to fight it. If we lose it, well, we lose it. But it's not going to be without a fight."
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