JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER WORK AT EGLIN STARTS!!!

Our own economic stimulus package has begun. With the work of the new Army 7th Special Forces Army Base and the groundbreaking of the Joint Strike Fighter facilities beginning, our area will be booming. Add, the privatization of military housing at Eglin, and you will see over 1 billion dollars of construction, yes 1 billion.



Breaking ground
Ceremony marks beginning of Joint Strike Fighter work

By MONA MOORE Northwest Florida Daily News 315-4443 monam@nwfdailynews.com EGLIN AFB — The Joint Strike Fighter groundbreaking Friday morning included nine flags, nine shovels and about a half dozen references to the base’s “good neighbors.” The ceremony at Eglin Air Force Base celebrated the start of nine construction projects related to the academic training center that will be home to at least 59 F-35s. The JSF mission has been lauded as the most efficient way for the United States and eight of its allies to prepare for the future. Presiding over the ceremony was Kevin W. Billings, assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment and logistics at Air Force Headquarters. He used words such as affordable, sustainable, serviceable and lethal to describe the fifth-generation aircraft. “This is a huge deal,” he said. The JSF is the first time nine allied countries have shared in the development and the cost of producing a new aircraft. “That’s pretty momentous. It is a benefit to the American taxpayer,” said Maj. Gen. Charles Davis, executive officer for the F-35 Lightning II Program. In May, Davis will replace Maj. Gen. David Eidsaune as commander of the Weapons and Air Armament Center. The distant sound of jets overhead and the empty seats in the front row of city, county and state officials were faint reminders of the elephant at the ceremony. Still, lawsuits, noise data and absent Valparaiso city commissioners were not the topics of the day’s festivities. After the ceremony, Eidsaune mentioned the Air Force’s need to solve noise mitigation issues on base, saying he was “completely confident” a solution would be found. During the ceremony, Eidsaune discussed the program’s potential. “I foresee a bright future at Eglin and this is the first step in making that future real,” he said. Billings said the cooperation of Northwest Florida residents has been an integral part of the success of the JSF mission. “Our nation’s aviators had no greater friends than those in Northwest Florida,” he said. Fort Walton Beach Mayor Mike Anderson said he looks forward to the “many good sides” of the JSF mission, including an influx of students in local schools, tourism from foreign JSF partners and military construction. More than $146 million of military construction will be completed in the next 540 days. Nine facilities will house the initial program. Plans include a $5 million dining facility and $15.8 million dormitories that will accommodate 600 students. Air Force and Navy operations hangars with price tags totaling more than $58 million and a $55.8 million training center are expected to open by 2011. “It will literally be a schoolhouse of the future,” said Maj. Gen. Erwin Lessel III, director of plans, programs, requirements and assessments, and director of the San Antonio Joint Program Office, Headquarters, Air Education and Training Command. The construction project could grow to $400 million if 54 additional F-35’s come to Eglin. The scope of the project covers the current JSF Record of Decision. Once a final ROD is filed, the Air Force will build additional hangars.