Base watch: Community's priority should be keeping SJAFB safe

It is a good thing that the county and the city have joined forces to assist in an effort to revitalize a group that did a stellar job of keeping Seymour Johnson Air Force Base safe for decades.

The Seymour Support Council, started under the leadership of, among others, Troy Pate, is one of the main reasons that this community had the connections and the pull it needed to be so well thought of in the military community.

Those connections are a very important part of how you keep a base from being on the Base Realignment and Closure list -- and the knowledge gleaned from those relationships of what makes a base less likely to be a BRAC target.

The money that is being invested -- and more that will be raised -- will be used to start a new effort with similar goals and a determination to make sure that the work is done to keep SJAFB off a potential 2017 BRAC list.

And there is no more critical task.

The members of the Military Affairs Committee, which is affiliated with the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, are hitting the ground running after successfully eliminating a threat from wind farms, which would have put a crimp in Air Force flight training.

Now they are ready to tackle the next big thing -- and they should receive absolute and enthusiastic support from county and city leaders.

Losing this base would be a devastating blow to this county. Protecting it is Job 1, 2 and 3.

Published in Editorials on January 23, 2014 10:52 AM