$2 Million Dollar Grant Insulates Goodfellow AFB from Closure

A grant for Goodfellow Air Force Base from the Governor’s Office totaling $2,042,000.00 was approved unanimously in Tom Green County Commissioners’ Court this week. The purpose of the grant is to keep Goodfellow growing in order to prevent its realignment or closure.

“This grant from the governor’s office is specifically for these type of projects,” County Judge Steve Floyd said. “The idea is to help improve bases to further protect them from chances of realignments or closures.”

Since Texas counties are the only entities eligible for this grant, Tom Green County led the cause for Goodfellow to be considered for the funding. According to Floyd, the grant will be used to fund the improvement of Goodfellow’s “advanced international training” program.

“Goodfellow’s been doing a lot of training for our other international allies, basically worldwide on various levels,” Floyd said. “This is one of their top priorities at Goodfellow as far as missions and expanding data is increasing that capability.”

More specifically, the majority of the grant will allow Goodfellow to remodel a currently unused building and add a high-tech facility for the training.

“Of course, they have to do it all certified through the department of defense,” Floyd said. “They’ve got an existing amount of contract agreements to do this training from various countries at various levels. If they are not able to stand this up and get this facility ready, then those training agreements are going to go to another military base. That’s what I’m not wanting to happen.”

The nation is due for another round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) in 2019.

“There’s talk of what they call a dark BRAC that effectively does not close and dispose of a base, but basically puts it in mothballs,” Floyd said. “That’s a new approach to how the Department of Defense gets rid of their additional capacity. We’ve been very aggressive in trying to support and grow that mission at Goodfellow to help ensure it against the negative realignments.”

For more about the danger of the base's reduction, realignment, or closure, keep an eye on San Angelo LIVE!

“I want to continue expanding here because it’s very crucial that we ensure the long-term viability of that base in the face of the atmosphere of shrinking militaries worldwide,” Floyd said. “We think the more critical the missions that they’re fulfilling out there, the better the chances that that base will be insulated from a reduction, or possibly moving or closing.”

Also, check out LIVE!’s article about how the base and the county work together in the community.