If the Fargo Air National Guard unit is "blended" into the Grand Forks Air Force Base, the Happy Hooligans will become a memory.
"Blending" is code for co-location. Co-location likely would mean complete appropriation and absorption of Fargo's 119th Fighter Wing into a base where the primary function is an air tanker fleet.
The notion of blending surfaced last week when a consultant's report said the Fargo unit could be recommended for such an option. The draft study was prepared for the Fargo-Moorhead Air National Guard Support Group by a Virginia firm. The study said co-location of the 119th at Grand Forks would have "the same effect on the Fargo community as closure." The draft report was reviewed by the local support group. A final report is expected by the end of summer.
The impact of losing the Hooligans would be substantial. The economic hit would be significant. The city would have to pick up services the Air Guard provides for Hector International Airport. Community pride would be hurt. The work Air Guard members do in the community would be lost.
But none of that matters if the Hooligans are unable to find a mission within the framework of the nation's new defense strategy. The unit's traditional role - to defend against an attack from a hostile power such as the old Soviet Union - doesn't exist any longer. The Hooligans performed admirably after 9-11 to provide air defense over the nation's capital, but that was extraordinary service, not a newly defined mission.
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Moreover, the 119th's F-16s are the oldest in the nation's jet fighter fleet. That fact alone makes the unit a target for closure or blending.
Community pride and legitimate economic considerations are driving the local effort to preserve the Fargo Air Guard unit. But unless the Hooligans' role in the country's overall national defense picture can be redefined, preservation will be difficult, if not impossible. After all, even the most avid supporters of the 119th (and we put ourselves in that company) must concede that the priority should be a cost-effective armed forces structure that provides the best possible defense of the nation.
There are options. Some people have been talking about locating a C-130 transport aircraft unit at Fargo to replace the aging F-16s, and change the unit's mission. An air space proposal which would use all of North Dakota's skies for air exercises and training is wending its way through the Pentagon bureaucracy. There might be a role for the Fargo base in that plan.
But nothing is certain as the Base Realignment and Closure process advances. BRAC will release a preliminary list of closures early next year. At this point there is little doubt that the 119th is vulnerable.
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper's Editorial Board
