Military still plans jet transfer to Fort Wayne
Fifteen Air National Guard fighter jets will from be moved from Illinois to a base in Fort Wayne despite a pending lawsuit against the move, an Indiana congressman said.
"The military's committed that Fort Wayne's going to be a super base, and we're going to get planes," Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., said Thursday. Fort Wayne also would gain nine F-16s now based at Terre Haute's Hulman Regional Airport.
Under a realignment of military bases announced in 2005, 15 jets from the 183rd Fighter Wing would be moved from Springfield, Ill., to Fort Wayne. But Illinois officials are trying to block the move on the grounds that the governor's consent is required for a National Guard base to be moved or closed.
Souder, whose district includes Fort Wayne, said he had been told the fighter jets are still scheduled to arrive in Fort Wayne in 2009 despite the lawsuit.
He said the jets actually would be reallocated nationwide and describing them as being moved from Illinois to Indiana was a form of military shorthand. He said he believed that the fighter jets from the Air National Guard bases that will be closed or reduced will be pooled and redistributed to bases that are scheduled to expand.
A federal judge in Springfield, Ill., ruled in favor of the Pentagon but a federal appeals court last month sent the case back for reconsideration. A date for the judge to rehear the case has not been set.
Indiana National Guard spokeswoman Staff Sgt. Tracey Couillard said she was not authorized to answer questions about the F-16 transfers