Years of work: How Offutt Air Force Base got its new runway | Nebraska Examiner

BELLEVUE, Nebraska — The roar of jet engines returned to Offutt Air Power Base at 2:08 p.m. Friday, on a brand new runway that took greater than a decade to fund and totally rebuild.

Congress and the Air Power spent $172 million remaking the 80-year-old runway. They spent one other $45 million transferring the fifty fifth Wing to Lincoln, the place it was based mostly throughout 18 months of development.

However getting the Air Power to acknowledge the runway’s issues and prioritize a full rebuild took 15 years or extra of Nebraskans assembly with Air Power brass and bird-dogging the army finances.

Over that span, the challenge climbed from one geared toward setting apart thousands and thousands of {dollars} for patchwork repairs to at least one that weighed a plan to partially repave the runway to at least one that embraced constructing it yet again.

Previous and current members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation and others spoke to the Nebraska Examiner in latest days in regards to the work it took to safe a brand new 12,000-foot runway.

Base leaders shared issues in regards to the runway with U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., after she took workplace in 2013. Air Power leaders nationally instructed her the runway was in “excellent situation.”

She requested them to review the runway’s situation. She knew what the Air Power would discover in 2015, when engineers rated Offutt’s runway because the worst within the Air Power’s Fight Command.

“It was clear that the runway was actually a catastrophe,” she instructed an Offutt crowd of greater than 150 individuals celebrating the runway’s return Friday. “It was in disrepair.” 

Fischer, who serves on the Senate Armed Providers Committee, labored in 2016 with Nebraska Republican Reps. Don Bacon, Jeff Fortenberry and Adrian Smith to safe $7.5 million for design work. The Air Power formally dedicated to a full rebuild of the runway in 2019.

The delegation additionally made certain the Air Power had the funding in its operations and upkeep budgets to cowl the mixed $217 million price of the challenge.

Fischer mentioned Bacon, a retired brigadier basic, was useful in loads of conferences as a result of he was a former commander of the Air Power’s fifty fifth Wing. She mentioned he “spoke their language.”

Bacon on Friday recalled his time operating the bottom in 2012, when he mentioned his four-star commander needed to circle Offutt whereas Bacon’s crews completed emergency repairs to the runway.

He credited Fischer and the late Rep. Brad Ashford, D-Neb., whom he beat in 2016. Ashford had labored with the delegation to safe $55 million for repairs earlier than Bacon took workplace in 2017.

“That is lovely, to see it come to fruition,” Bacon mentioned of the rebuild. “We went from the worst runway within the Air Power to the most effective.”

Ashford’s widow, Ann, laughed recalling how he warned former President Barack Obama in January 2016 that Air Power One was about to have a bumpy touchdown at Offutt, however that he may repair it.

Fortenberry, a member of the Home Appropriations Committee on the time, made certain each Offutt and the Lincoln Airport bought the funding they wanted, a former staffer mentioned. He created a activity drive within the mid-2010s to deal with the problem.

Former Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., who represented Offutt for a lot of his time in Congress from 1999 to 2015, mentioned bettering the World Battle II-era runway was typically the highest precedence of Offutt commanders when he visited the bottom.

“So I made that my precedence,” Terry mentioned.

He mentioned he labored with the Home Armed Providers Committee and former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., on runway repairs till Ashford changed Terry in 2015.

The delegation bought some assist from native enterprise leaders and a lift from a sequence of articles within the Omaha World-Herald detailing the poor situation of the runway, boosters mentioned.

Fischer and Bacon mentioned they see Air Power investments in a brand new runway, a brand new headquarters for U.S. Strategic Command and $1 billion in flood repairs as a transparent nationwide dedication to Offutt.

The bottom hosts the fifty fifth Wing and StratCom, which oversees U.S. nuclear forces. About 10,000 individuals work there.

“When you’ve gotten an enormous challenge like this, it takes years and years,” Fischer mentioned earlier than her speech Friday. “It’s simply very nice to see it accomplished. That is extraordinarily vital to the nation.”  

Bacon mentioned he hopes the runway reopened Friday is only a begin. His aim, he mentioned, is to see Offutt sooner or later add a second runway, going north to south.

“Our nuclear survivability and deterrence will depend on this runway,” he mentioned.

Bacon made his first main public look Friday at Offutt since having an emergency appendectomy Wednesday in Maryland. He mentioned he wouldn’t have missed the runway ceremony, although he mentioned he may be in a bit ache Saturday.

Air Power Gen. Mark Kelly, commander of U.S. Air Fight Command, and Col. Kristen Thompson, commander of the fifty fifth Wing, praised the resilience of Offutt airmen and ladies.

Each Kelly and Thompson mentioned Offutt service members survived the historic flood of 2019, relocation to Lincoln, a whole rebuild of the runway and the coronavirus pandemic.

“The runway is again,” Thompson mentioned. “To our airmen and their households, welcome residence.”