My first encounter with the 104th Fighter Wing at Barnes Airport was in 1994. Mayor Richard Sullivan, Jr. and I started in the Mayor’s office after the inauguration and within a week he was invited to go on an ESGR trip to learn about the actual service the men and women did while they took time away from their employer to serve in the Guard. Since Mayor Sullivan couldn’t take the trip, as his assistant, I was invited. I was fortunate to take trips to Florida, Louisiana and Arizona throughout the years under different Commanders. You might be thinking these are great winter junkets to somewhere warm to have a good time. That is so not the case, the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserves’s mission is to show employers the value of allowing their employees to serve in the Guard. Each trip was four days, two for travel, one on either end, or two days of observation of the 104th doing training exercises. That entailed traveling hours into the flatlands or deserts to watch, at that time, A-10’s doing simulation bombing runs and shooting at targets with their 30mm gun. I quickly learned what the word “precision” meant. After one of those observations we went back to the hangar and met with one of the pilots who during the training had a group of seagulls fly by him and one hit his wing. We saw the giant hole it produced and learned about landing a plane after such an unanticipated accident. The seagull was in a bag next to the plane and we all declined to take a peak.
On the flights to these austere destinations we traveled in cargo aircraft, sitting sideways in web seats facing giant boxes of equipment. There was always a pipe of some sort in the worst place under you. The heating and cooling system left much to be desired and we carried emergency oxygen with us, around our necks like a green canvas purse. We learned our service personnel don’t travel in luxury. While flying on a tanker we observed the refueling of the A-10s which was another example of precision.
One such trip we took-off with over a foot of snow on the runway following a snow plow. Another trip we arrived home to find out we couldn’t land in Barnes or Westover due to the weather, so we landed on sheer ice at Bradley Field at the Guard Base in Connecticut late at night. There was no one to bring us stairs so we climbed down a ladder from a hatch in the front of the plane carrying our luggage and were told they were not shutting down the plane for fear of icing so we should run to the nearest building. We drove back to Westfield in a military school bus with no defrost so we all took out credit cards and scraped the windows so the driver could see. These flights could have been a bit frightening but I knew the pilots flew in worse weather and that they would never put 20 civilians in danger. I also learned that when there was a mission it would be accomplished.
About 14 years ago as the assistant to the Mayor I was asked to be a member of the 104th Fighter Wing’s Community Advisory Board. The mission of the board was to work with the 104th and their experts to clean up the contamination that was on base over our aquifer, this contamination resulted from lesser EPA standards in the 1950/60s. There was contamination from fuel, oil and ammunition in various areas. We worked to determine the best way to clean up each sight and proceeded from there. We initially met monthly and some months we seemed to take one step forward and two steps back when a sight was determined to be bigger than expected or another was discovered. But after 14 years, meeting monthly, than quarterly, then semiannually and now annually, I can state that we now have a clean base and procedures so there is no future contamination.
Through all these years of involvement I learned so many more facts about our 104th. Last year their economic impact to the community was almost $85 million dollars through operations, maintenance, construction and military pay. Think about what the loss of that investment would have to Westfield and surrounding communities. Over 95% of the unit’s 1000 members live within 30 miles of the base. What an important employer. The 104th works closely with the Boys and Girls Club, the Salvation Army, the Chamber of Commerce, the Carson Center, the USO and many local non-profits. The 104th hosted 25 tours in 2011 for various agencies such as the Westfield Senior Center and the Boys and Girl Scouts of America. They host a golf tournament that over the past five years has raised $80,000 for the Holyoke Soldiers Home and they support the local Polar Plunge with heaters and generators. They host military concerts, hosted six high school interns throughout the school year and the list goes on and on.
The 104th has repeatedly won the highest awards for performance of all guard units in the country. In 2011 the 104th sent 39 Wing members to seven countries and were awarded 2 Bronze Stars for meritorious service.
I must not forget to mention the 104th Fighter Wing’s primary mission to defend the homeland and to preserve freedom.
In addition the 104th was called to duty to support Domestic Operations in 2011 following three local disasters, the tornado, the hurricane and the October snow fall. Members provided support services, aided local communities in clearing roads and protecting their citizens. Just last week the wing was awarded its eighth Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, for its actions from 2009 to 2011.
I asked Mayor Daniel Knapik for a thought on what the 104th means to Westfield and he replied with the following:
“Now I can say what a tremendous asset in times of need the 104th has come to mean to us. We have watched them go off and help other cities and countries over the years and were proud of the work they did. And in the year that was 2011, we learned firsthand how important a National Guard Unit is in their peacetime mission. Throughout each event, the unit’s community liaison was in constant contact with us to ensure that we had what we needed. There is now a new procedure for deploying Guard Units that runs through MEMA and the 104th was taken off the list because of their new Air Superiority Attack Mission. So when the Unit learned we needed assistance and they didn’t get notified by their channels that we were in need of help for the October snow storm, that started the ball rolling and we quickly (through the coordinated efforts of the liaison and our Emergency Management Director Jim Wiggs) were able to bring the 104th assets and troops to our aid. And in the days that followed, unit members from not only the 104th but also the Army’s 126th Aviation unit helped us get back on our feet. We will forever be thankful that both units call Westfield home.”
I am hoping after reading this article, when you hear the Sound of Freedom when the F-15s take flight, you will have a better understanding of the importance of the entire 104th Fighter Wing has on all of our local communities. The Sound of Freedom and So Much More!!
