Elected officials got assurances Friday that an option under consideration to move all or part of the 139th Airlift Wing from St. Joseph to Knob Knoster near Whiteman Air Force Base was “dead,” reports the News-Press. We reported Monday that Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and local officials had raised cautionary flags last week over the issue. According to the newspaper, Brig. Gen. Craig McCord, head of the Missouri Air National Guard, told local officials that the restructuring of the Air Guard’s 131st at Whiteman from a fighter to a bomb wing prompted the state Guard to “sort through the best way to manage its assets.” But, he added that the proposed reshuffle for the 139th AW was “just an option to consider and now it’s a dead issue.”
A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes in the Middle East are flying with fresh modifications as the Air Force looks to make the plane more versatile amid America’s ongoing blockade of Iranian ports and a tenuous ceasefire in the U.S. air war against Iran.