Westover to lose aircraft, personnel

4/28/2014 - WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass -- Air Force officials announced Monday that half of the 439th Airlift Wing's C-5 fleet - and more than 300 jobs here - will be cut as a result of Pentagon budget cuts and sequestration.

While the host unit 439th AW flies 16 C-5B models, eight C-5s will transfer from Westover to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, beginning in 2015. The C-5 fleet is scheduled to be upgraded to the re-engined M-models. In the plan, Westover will retain eight of the refurbished C-5Ms.

Personnel losses include 59 full-time enlisted and 275 drilling reservists. This number has not been finalized nor has a timeline been released yet.

Drilling reservists are those Airmen who perform unit training assemblies at the base monthly, while the full-time air reserve technicians are civil service employees during the week. ARTs also report for the monthly UTAs.

"These changes affect the core of our mission here - our dedicated men and women. These reductions will incur hardships on our people," said Brig. Gen. Steven Vautrain, 439th AW commander. "We will take care of our people; we will place as a many as possible in other positions within the wing and programs will be available to assist those displaced by this change in force structure. We will continue to fulfill our global mobility mission before, during and after these changes."

ARTs should consult with the military personnel flight and civilian personnel offices on base, while drilling reservists should work through the MPF.

Faced with austere budgets, the Air Force is refocusing and reducing the size of its forces to comply with the president's new defense strategy and the Budget Control Act's requirements to cut $487 billion from the defense budget over the next eight years.