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wo years after Hurricane Katrina left $950 million in damage at Keesler AFB, Miss., the base’s five-year recovery plan has “exceeded all expectations,” Brig. Gen. Paul Capasso, 81st Training Wing commander, said last week. The base’s training mission “never went away entirely—training was going on in base shelters at the height of the storm,” and that, according to Capasso, kept Keesler on the move. Air Force journalist Susan Griggs reports that the base has cleared more than 4,000 trees damaged in the hurricane; begun work this year on 1,028 new homes, the first to be ready next spring and the last two years later; and started work on a $78.6 million shopping complex to replace the main exchange and commissary destroyed by Katrina.
The Air Force is planning to spend $2.19 billion over the next five years to acquire new C-37 jets for transporting military and civilian leaders. That’s on top of another $1.17 billion in projected funding for the VC-25B “Air Force One” replacement.