Commander of 96th: We want to ensure missions flow into Eglin

DESTIN — With another round of Base Realignment and Closure possibly coming in 2013 or 2015, the commander of the 96th Air Base Wing said Eglin Air Force Base remains well-positioned for future growth.

Col. Sal Nodjomian spoke at Tuesday’s Leaders in Business Lunch organized by the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce and gave a broad update on the impact recent budget cuts on Eglin Air Force Base and local military missions.

“While other bases are sitting down again trying to build up their fortress walls to get ready for the next round of realignment, we’re not worried about that,” Nodjomian said. “We’re not worried about missions flying out of here. What we want to know is what can we possibly do to ensure missions flow in here? So as missions come out of other installations, what can we do to make sure we remain in receiver status for that mission?”

Faced with budget reductions of nearly $500 billion, Air Force Material Command announced last year that it would do away with seven of its 12 centers, one of those being the Air Armament Center, which housed 46th Test Wing and the 96th Air Base Wing.

Although there was concern among the community and the impact that would have on Eglin, Nodjomian said the only impact for Eglin was the elimination of some management positions and that the 46th Test Wing and the 96th Air Base Wing were combined to operate as one “super wing” that would now report to the Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base.

“The missions are going to remain the same and will continue to do great things in the area. The mission is not going away,” Nodjomian said. “Everything that the 46th Test Wing does today, it’s still going to be done out here. Everything that the 96th Air Base does is still going to be done. The middle-level management that existed is what took the hit. That’s to the tune of about 350 or so people.

“That doesn’t mean that 350 people got pink slips either,” he added.

Nodjomian said Eglin has been under a hiring freeze since last August. Once the roughly 350 management level positions were eliminated, all but about two dozen people were realigned to unfilled positions.

“Despite all the doom and gloom you hear on budgets and personnel cuts and everything else, the reality is we’ve done extremely well,” Nodjomian said. “We’ve invested over $1.5 billion in just the last couple of years. But we’ve also continued to invest in our child development centers, our playgrounds, (and) fitness continues to be a big issue for us. So we’re investing in our fitness program. We’re going to put $65 million into our medical complex and create one of the Air Force’s absolute best facilities.

“The future continues to be extremely bright for what we’re doing out at Eglin and we continue to position ourselves for continued growth,” he added.