KINGSLEY FIELD — Mac Thornberry, Republican representative for the 13th District of Texas and Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, stood in nipping fall wind as it blew across wide-open concrete plane runways and field stretches of Kingsley. The Chairman — stoic and patient, surrounded by staffers and local politicians — watched a string of F-15 fighter jet pilots take off across the military base ground, then soar almost straight up into the slightly hazy, sunnily backlit sky.
Thornberry told the Herald and News that he sees U.S. military pilots as some of the most visible projectors of American power.
“Whether it’s deterring Russia, China, Iran or North Korea, we have had unquestioned air superiority since World War II,” Thornberry said. “We can’t take that for granted though because other folks are trying to catch up.”
The next jet
Thornberry visited Kingsley Air National Guard Base Wednesday morning on invitation from Greg Walden (R-OR, 2nd District) to get to know the facility, the only training ground for F-15 fighter pilots in the United States. The visit, Walden said, was also to expose Thornberry to the possibility of bringing new F-35 jet fighters to Kinglsey when the F-15 is eventually retired.
“I thought it was important to get him our here and have him see first-hand the community support for this base,” Walden said. “There’s need to keep these aircraft flying and eventually replace them with a more modern plane because it’s where we train our pilots.”
The F-15 is no longer produced, and the planes are getting old — they still work for now, said Colonel Jeff Smith, but it behooves the Klamath Falls and Kingsley community to look toward the future of the F-15’s retirement.
“It will retire — it’s matter of when not if — and when it retires, this type of high visibility visit shows that people are looking out for us, and that there is a long future for the people of the Klamath Basin with this base.”
National security
Smith said he sees Kingsley as not only an asset to Klamath Falls (it is the third largest employer in the community), but to the greater picture of national security. Every F-15 pilot in the armed forces trains at Kingsley, he said, and they are deployed across the world in places like Japan.
“We’re feeding fighter pilots to a combat echelon that is on the doorstep of our largest near peers,” Smith said. “Since 1953, none of our soldiers on the ground have been killed by an enemy aircraft — they are able to focus on being on the ground without worrying about being attacked, because we’ve got it — that’s what air superiority is.”
Thornberry said the U.S. Air Force is dealing with a shortage of almost 2,000 pilots. He said air bases like Kingsley are essential to the recruitment and training process to fill that gap.
Thornberry acknowledged that all Americans might not agree on the military’s missions and spending, or with his personal objectives as the House Armed Services Committee Chair — like increasing the defense budget over the past two years, and easing purchasing relationships between private industry and the military.
But Thornberry said keeping pilots safe and secure in well-maintained planes was an area of common ground — and a pressing necessity.
“That’s one thing I think everybody can agree on — you may agree or disagree about a particular mission, but if you’re sending people out there on a mission, they deserve to have the best equipment and the best training that our country can give.”
Walden hoped the “unprecedented” open space and ideal flying weather of Klamath Falls would entice Thornberry to back the possibility of F-35s at Kingsley. Neither he nor Thornberry have ultimate authority over that decision — it’s up to the Air Force — but Walden said it was crucial for national leaders to understand the scope of Kingsley’s pilot training capabilities.
“Nobody in the Oregon delegation is on the armed services committees in the House or Senate, and I think it’s important to make sure our flag is getting raised,” Walden said.
As the F-15 pilots continued their steady steam of flights across Kingsley, Thornberry reflected on how it felt to watch them rise.
“Somebody would say it’s the sound of freedom or whatever,” he said. “It’s very impressive no matter how many times you’ve seen it because, partly, you’re thinking about what complex, sophisticated machines they are — and partly, you’re thinking about the guys who are riding in them.”
