WASHINGTON — The Air Force will ship eight large transport planes to the Air National Guard base in Mansfield, a move that Sen. Sherrod Brown said could create as many as 180 new jobs for the base.
By sending the turboprop C-130H planes to the 179th Airlift Wing at Mansfield Lahm Airport, the Air Force is following through on a pledge by President Barack Obama to find a new mission for the base in an effort to keep it open. The first of the planes will arrive by September and the last by June 2016.
At a news conference yesterday in Columbus, Brown, D-Ohio, said he had lobbied Obama and Vice President Joe Biden “for two years about this,” and had brought up the planes to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel before his confirmation this year by the U.S. Senate.
“The president and vice president made commitments to me, and they’ve lived up to them,” said Brown, who was born and raised in Mansfield. “This base will be alive and well,” and the move “will bring jobs to Richland County.”
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