MCAS Yuma/Yuma International Airport (YUM, KNYL, NYL)

[Scott Youmans]

Taken along 32nd Street during May 2010.  Quite a strange flying machine.

[Scott Youmans]

CH-53E

[Scott Youmans]

F-5N - June 2008 on our way back from Coronado.  I was determined to show my wife and mother how cool (perhaps interesting would be a better choice of words) it was at the end of runway at MCAS Yuma. We had just missed some VMFT-401 F-5s departing so we waited about 45 minutes for them to come back.  Actually for me it was about 45 minutes but for them it was more like 2 hours.  But now they know how interesting it is.

[Scott Youmans]

Lunar Landing - WTI April 2008

[bilwor]

Lockheed Martin KC-130J Hercules-Battleherk USMC 166765 QB-765 VMGR Rangers MCAS Miramar
KNYL MCAS Yuma & Yuma International Airport

[Lynn Evans]

Finally got to shoot for a couple of hours today, but it was pretty quiet in Yuma.

RAF at MCAS Yuma

[Bill]

Apparently MCAS Yuma is on the hit list for the next round of base closings. I just read the following.

"Among top candidates for closure: The Army's Fort Detrick in Md.,
Fort Monroe in Va., Fort McCoy in Wis., Fort Lewis in Wash., Fort Leonard in Mo.
The Air Force's Cheyenne Mountain Air Station in Colo., Beale AFB in Calif.,
Joint Base Charleston in S.C. and McChord AFB in Wash. Also these Navy bases:
Naval Base Ventura County in Calif., Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Fla.,
Naval Air Station Fallon in Nev. as well as Naval Station Newport in R.I. And...
Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Ariz., Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
in N.C., along with the Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany in N.Y."

Bill Todd

[Joe Copalman]

Wow, what's the source on that Bill?  With how close Yuma is to training ranges and how great the weather is for year-round training, I really can't see them being a viable candidate for closure.

[Bill]

The source is a newsletter I subscribe to, The Kiplinger Washington Letter. They have always been very accurate about things like that in the past. Of course DOD can still change the list since it has not been sent to congress yet.

Bill

[Scott Youmans]

Wow, what's the source on that Bill?  With how close Yuma is to training ranges and how great the weather is for year-round training, I really can't see them being a viable candidate for closure.

My thoughts exactly.  Poor decisions seem to be the name of the game.  They are currently putting a lot of money into the base with facilities for the F-35B.

[Chris Kennedy]

This is just speculation by a reporter. There isn't any list to be sent to Congress. The DoD is trying to get Congress to approve another BRAC process. Most people, including Kiplinger, don't think Congress will even consider that before 2014 or 2015. If a BRAC is authorized, the commission decides which bases are to be closed, based on requests from the DoD. The BRAC process was created to keep Congress out of the closing decisions. Once they approve the process there theoretically is nothing they can do about the final decisions. Before BRAC, each decision by the DoD to close bases was fought over in Congress and there were hardly any closed due to politics. BRAC has worked pretty well in the past.

Congressmen fight tooth and nail to keep bases in their districts from closing, due to the loss of jobs and money that occurs when they close. Recycling of closed military bases to civilian uses, in general, has not been very successful.

[Bill]

Chris is spot on about the process. I do, however, take exception to the comment that this is speculation by a reporter. It is the list that DOD currently plans to submit to BRAC when another  commission is authorized. The Kiplinger Letter has been around for over 80 years and the reason they get accurate information from those in government is that they have never attributed anything they have published. The final decision still belongs to congress. What the BRAC process achieves is removing congressional authority over individual base closings. When BRAC submits the final list to congress congress must approve or disapprove the entire list without change. Chris is also correct that we are years from the actual closings and the list may change substantially before it is finalized.

Bill

[Scott Youmans]

VMFT-401 Tiger II - Long live MCAS Yuma!

[Scott Youmans]

VMFT-401 F-5F

[Scott Youmans]

C-2 Shining Sea