ST. JOSEPH, MO - U.S. Senator Kit Bond today joined Col. Steve Cotter, Wing Commander of the 139th Airlift Wing, members of the Missouri National Guard, and local county officials at the ribbon cutting and dedication for a new facility at Rosecrans Field for the 241st Air Traffic Control Squadron in St. Joseph. “It is fitting that we are celebrating this new facility on the eve of Independence Day. As we celebrate the July 4th holiday, we cannot forget that our ideals and freedoms will not survive unless we are willing to protect them,” said Bond. “Thank you all for your hard work and for your sacrifices. I am pleased to have played a role in the creation of this new facility. It is an honor to continue to fight for the Guard and for all of you in Washington.”

As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Bond secured $8 million in federal funds for the Air National Guard Air Traffic Control Training Complex in 2006. The new facility will provide a home for Air Traffic Control personnel operating from Rosecrans Field in St. Joseph who continue to serve proudly in the Global War on Terror.

Bond stressed that since 9/11, the National Guard has had a much-expanded mission. The expansion of the National Guard’s mission involves handling natural disasters like flood and hurricane relief at home to providing on-the-ground active duty and support overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan as we fight the War on Terror.

Despite the expanded mission, equipment, infrastructure, and troop levels have not kept pace, Bond pointed out. While the Missouri Guard was able to build the new facility at Rosecrans, Guard units throughout the country still desperately need to be modernized. Bond praised the Guard for their hard work, but acknowledged they cannot and should not operate with substandard and old equipment. The National Guard needs to be modernized alongside and at the same time that the Army and Air Force are modernized. Failure to do that marginalizes the Guard and diminishes the Guard’s homeland defense and homeland security capabilities, emphasized Bond.

Bond, along with Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) co-chair the more than 80-member Senate National Guard Caucus. In recent years the two lawmakers have lead efforts to address the Guard’s equipment backlogs. Earlier this month, they successfully added and additional $1 billion to the supplemental funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan, to help replenish Guard equipment stocks for domestic emergency responses. Bond and Leahy are also pushing forward with their National Guard Empowerment Act, which would give the Guard a more effective “seat at the table” as decisions about missions and budgets are decided at the Pentagon.

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