{"id":5071,"date":"2012-03-06T15:07:02","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T21:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=5071"},"modified":"2012-03-07T10:28:30","modified_gmt":"2012-03-07T16:28:30","slug":"u-s-air-force-is-shuttering-tinker-unit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/03\/06\/u-s-air-force-is-shuttering-tinker-unit\/","title":{"rendered":"Updated: U.S. Air Force is Shuttering Tinker Unit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_5075\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"First Lt. Jake Cadwell, with the 3rd Combat Communications Group, sets up a line-of-sight microwave transmitter.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/03\/thirdherd.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5075\" title=\"thirdherd\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/03\/thirdherd.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/03\/thirdherd.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/03\/thirdherd-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/03\/thirdherd-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">U.S. Air Force<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">First Lt. Jake Cadwell, with the 3rd Combat Communications Group, sets up a line-of-sight microwave transmitter.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>On Monday, state leaders said Oklahoma military installations were &#8220;well-positioned&#8221; to survive defense cuts.<\/p><p>Survive, maybe, but perhaps not intact.<\/p><p>Today it was learned that The U.S. Air Force is planning to shutter a communications unit at Tinker Air Force Base that employs more than 600.<\/p><p><a href=\"http:\/\/newsok.com\/article\/3655139\">From D.C.<\/a>, <em>The Oklahoman<\/em>\u2019s Chris Casteel:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Air Force notified Sen. Jim Inhofe on Tuesday that the 3rd Combat Communications Group, known as the 3rd Herd, will be eliminated.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>A Tinker spokesperson said a formal announcement will be issued at 4:30 p.m. today.<\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p>According to a U.S. military <a href=\"http:\/\/www.24af.af.mil\/library\/factsheets\/factsheet.asp?id=15367\">fact-sheet<\/a> from August 2011, more than 700 people work in the 3rd Herd unit, which provides communications, computer and navigational systems and air traffic control.<\/p><p>On Monday, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz spoke at a Greater Oklahoma City Chamber luncheon about the aerospace defense industry. Neither mentioned the decision.<\/p><p>At the luncheon, Inhofe blasted a recent Air Force <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/budget-sequestrationwould-be-a-dagger-to-defense\/2012\/03\/02\/gIQArPfWrR_story.html\">budget proposal<\/a> that calls for $487 billion in cuts.<\/p><p><em>The Oklahoman<\/em>\u2019s Steve Lackmeyer <a href=\"http:\/\/newsok.com\/top-air-force-commander-oklahoma-senator-defend-views-on-u.s.-defense-cuts\/article\/3654972\/?page=1\">from the luncheon<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Schwartz called Tinker Air Force Base a critical component to the nation&#8217;s defense and said he believes the military can meet its objective of maintaining preparedness with a \u201csmaller force.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><p>Update: 5:02 p.m.<\/p><p>Here&#8217;s the press release from Air Force Public Affairs:<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-documentcloud\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<div class=\"DC-embed DC-embed-document DV-container\">\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:129.4444444444444%;height:0;overflow:hidden;max-width:100%;\"> <iframe src=\"\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/323492-inactivation-of-the-3rd-combat-communications.html?embed=true&responsive=false&sidebar=false\" title=\"Inactivation of the 3rd Combat Communications Group (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:1px solid #aaa;border-bottom:0;box-sizing:border-box;\"><\/iframe> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><p>The Air Force is planning to retain another wing of the unit at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, Inhofe spokesman Jared Young tells the Associated Press.<\/p><p>The cuts are the biggest so far at an Oklahoma military base as the Defense Department adjusts to new budget priorities, the AP reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, state leaders said Oklahoma military installations were &#8220;well-positioned&#8221; to survive defense cuts.Survive, maybe, but perhaps not intact.Today it was learned that The U.S. Air Force is planning to shutter a communications unit at Tinker Air Force Base that employs more than 600.From D.C., The Oklahoman\u2019s Chris Casteel: The Air Force notified Sen. Jim [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":5075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[301,300],"tags":[195,192],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}