Hundreds support Fort Rucker at listening session

Billy Thomas waited in line for over an hour to allow his family to voice its concerns about the future of Fort Rucker.

Thomas, a civilian machinist, is a third generation Fort Rucker employee and like many of the 1,632 local citizens that gathered on post for Monday’s sequestration forum, he is worried about his “home.”

“We would have to move,” Thomas said if proposed cuts come to be. “Prices would just go up and we would have to find somewhere else. It’s just the way it is.”

Thomas’ young son, Judd, pleaded to the Army panel to tell Congress that his “daddy works on helicopters” and to “not take that away.”

More than 100 people, many from families whose livelihood is dependent on the post, stepped up to the mic to voice their concerns about the future of Fort Rucker. The post held a special listening session for a panel from the Army to gauge public response to looming federal cuts set to take effect on Oct. 1.

Citizens told stories of how the post has had a positive influence on their lives and how they returned to the Wiregrass area after military careers were over. More than two-dozen residents that went to the mic told of how Fort Rucker was like a giant family, and that “Mother Rucker” truly was home. Many were military veterans, but some were members of families like Thomas’.

Enterprise resident Wayne Lindsey could lose his entire household income, as he and his wife are employed on post. Lindsey said he grew up in New Brockton and developed a fondness for the post as a young boy. He later joined the service and began a career as an aircraft maintainer, all with the goal of moving back to the area and working at Fort Rucker.  

Now he is faced with an uncertain future.

“I work for a contractor out here, and my wife also works at Fort Rucker,” Lindsey said from a microphone in the back of the packed theatre. “I don’t know if you know what it is like, or thought about what it might be like emotionally, to have your entire income cut out from under you at one time. That is what I am facing.”

Sequestration hits could mean the loss of approximately $600 million from the annual post budget, from $1.5 billion to roughly $900 million. Nine hundred pilots are trained at Fort Rucker every year, but that number could drop below 600 if sequestration takes effect as scheduled.

With potential cuts to the Fort Rucker budget of 40 percent, brought on by the Budget Control Act of 2011, members of the local community pleaded to a team of Army personnel. The panel, led by Brig. Gen. Roger Cloutier, listened, took notes and vowed to take the concerns of the residents back to Washington, D.C. for a report to Congress later this year.

Cloutier, who works in the Pentagon, is in the process of visiting 30 military installations around the nation and wants the public’s voice to be heard.

“The Chief of Staff of the Army and the Secretary of the Army want to make sure that we get the public’s perspective,” said Cloutier. “We want to hear their voice and make sure that we tell the Fort Rucker community’s story. The Pentagon is a long way from Fort Rucker. We have the facts. We know how many buildings and rangers there are. What we want to gather is the context, to get the Fort Rucker story from the community.”

Attendees wore large stickers on their shirts with pictures of helicopters and the words “Fort Rucker: the heartbeat of the Wiregrass. Local elected officials all had turns to address the Army panel, and each stressed the importance of the post. Some begged for more military programs to be moved to Fort Rucker in order to strengthen the post, the Army and the local communities.

Enterprise mayor Kenneth Boswell feels the impact of the cuts would extend well beyond the gates of the post.

“When you look at the impact of 3,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirectly throughout the Wiregrass, that is devastating,” Boswell said. “It cuts in to your teachers. It cuts in to your housing. It cuts in to the medical field. It cuts in to every aspect of every community in the area. We want to do everything we can to support our military and hopefully get that Budget Control Act amended or rescinded.”

For folks like Thomas, Lindsey and other local residents, the U.S. Senators and Congressmen from the state of Alabama vow to fight sequestration to the last moment.  Rep. Martha Roby is one of them.

Roby was in attendance at the forum and made a simple, yet effective address.

“They say sequestration is the law of the land,” Roby said. “Well, Congress has the power to change that law. I will not stop fighting this legislation.”

Senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions were unable to attend due to meetings in Washington, but did send members of their respective staffs to show support.

Roby, Sessions nor Shelby voted in favor of the Budget Control Act of 2011.

But as of now, nothing is set in stone. The Army listening team, led by Cloutier, has several more installations to visit and will not have a report presented to Congress for months.  A final verdict is expected to be announced sometime in late spring or early summer.

“The SPEA analyzed a reduction of up 2,500 spaces here at Fort Rucker,” Cloutier said. “That is worst case. It doesn’t mean that is how many spacers are going to be taken. No decisions have been made at all.”

Until word comes from Washington, Thomas will do what he has done for years: get up in the morning and head for post to go to work.

“I have been working here for years, and will keep doing it,” he said. “Fort Rucker is home, it is our livelihood. I moved my family in to my mama’s house after she passed away and this is home. Hopefully it will be home for a long time.”