Clipped wing?

They have known it was possible since then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown Jr. delivered a two-hour testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee July 11, 2023 — when he talked about “modernization efforts” outlined in the Department of Defense’s “Report on Force Structure Changes for the Fiscal Year 2024 Defense Budget” and outlined his desire to retire F-15Es while adding additional F-35 Lightning IIs and F-15EXs to the Air Force’s fleet.

They knew “the math” did not look good for Seymour Johnson Air Force Base when North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd’s last-ditch attempt to derail the divestment of Strike Eagles resulted not in his perfect-world prohibition of F-15E cuts but a compromise that would see more than 31 percent of the nation’s dual-role fighters sent to The Boneyard.

But local leaders — including N.C. House Majority Leader John Bell, Wayne County Board of Commissioners Chairman Chris Gurley, and Goldsboro Mayor Charles Gaylor — were shocked when 4^th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Lucas Teel confirmed Feb. 8, in a statement provided to New Old North that was subsequently picked up by other media outlets, that Seymour Johnson would be losing the 333^rd Fighter Squadron as part of what military sources have since confirmed is a future that will see one of the Air Force’s largest tactical fighter units shifting its mission to simply training the next generation of air crews.

And now, they are among those trying to get to the bottom of both how, despite employing lobbyists and having a rich tradition of military advocacy from local organizations including Friends of Seymour and the Military Affairs Committee, they were “blindsided” by the news — and, more importantly, what, if anything, can be done to ensure the Goldsboro installation is postured for future success.

“I heard the news just like everyone else and I was surprised. It’s clear, in my opinion, that somebody was asleep at the wheel. That’s what I assumed happened,” Bell said. “So, I want to go through and find out what, when, how, and why. That way, I’ll know how to use the resources — the contacts I have in Washington — to see if we can stop this from happening. And if we can’t stop this from happening, can we go on offense to pick up more missions to support Seymour Johnson? We can never fall asleep on protecting our base.”

Gaylor shared Bell’s shock and frustration.

“We’re going to have to reassess who some of those downstream relationships are with. There’s no doubt about it,” he said. “We can’t be caught off guard on something this big. We knew the overall math (as it relates to future F-15E divestments). That has been out there. But the timing of when the tails are actually going to be leaving our base … that is stuff that we should have known. And we’re spending a fair amount of money to make sure we do know. So yeah, those are things we have to be pretty blunt about.”

One of those relationships — one that costs Goldsboro and Wayne County tens of thousands of dollars a year — is with the Roosevelt Group which, according to its website, provides “legislative drafting, federal advocacy, and campaign and issues management to help our clients achieve their goals while providing continual awareness of issues that matter most to their success.”

But Gaylor said the consultants didn’t know about the changes coming to Seymour Johnson either — and that he is “not happy” about it.

“Their response was, ‘I haven’t heard that yet. Let me follow up,’” the mayor said. “So yeah, that is incredibly frustrating when you are putting your assets in place to be able to get information that you need in order to be able to plan and support your community, and those assets are not able to deliver. I don’t know the reasons why they were not.”

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Bell understands that a shift to a training-only mission for the 4^th Fighter Wing could have serious implications for the community — that there is a big difference between having high-ranking officers dig roots in Wayne County because they know they could be bouncing back and forth between the base’s two tactical fighter squadrons, the 335^th and 336^th, for years and years and a “two years and you’re gone” scenario that is the reality for those who would come here to learn to fly before leaving Seymour Johnson for more permanent duty stations.

In other words, they would be less likely to, for instance, buy homes and invest in the community if they knew their time in Goldsboro was fleeting.

So, he is preparing for a fight.

“I do believe that once we know how it happened and why it happened, we can attack it with a full front,” Bell said. “We have the political clout and the strength to really advocate hard for our base.”

And giving up? Not an option.

“Shoot no,” Bell said. “I’ve been there waiting on pins and needles watching BRAC play out and wondering what was going to happen and things like that, but you fight until the very end. You don’t surrender.”

Gaylor and Gurley had similar messages.

For Gurley, it starts with getting answers. Now.

“This is what I told (the delegation that traveled to Washington this week) when we met. I said, ‘This is what I’m tasking you with. I want you to go up there and find out what our options are. Talk to the people … to tell us if we can win it. Who do we need to be in front of?’” he said. “The fact of the matter is, the F-15E is not going to be around forever because of the engines. They’re an aging force. So, I told them, ‘We don’t need to be sitting still. We need to be figuring out what the next mission is for Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.’”

Gaylor has an idea.

“I have made the comment now in multiple meetings that if we land a squadron of F-15EXs … you have secured the future of Seymour Johnson to some degree into my child’s adulthood,” he said.

But to get there, Wayne County needs to shift the optics on everything from the state of local public schools to crime.

“The things that I can turn the levers on directly are crime and housing. The things that I ultimately think will help our schools the most are crime, housing, and economic development,” the mayor said. “While I will never be able in this particular role to go to a School Board meeting and say, ‘Hey guys. I need you to redistrict this or that,’ or, ‘Hey guys. I need you to move this principal here,’ there are things that we can take responsibility for and things we can try to move the needle on that have historically everywhere been shown to raise the outcomes of individual schools.”

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Gurley wants the community to know that he and his peers have “not been sitting on our hands” and are “fighting as hard as we can.”

And Gaylor said panicking is not an option — that “we need to have a strategy” and build a coalition to ensure the best possible outcome for Seymour Johnson and the communities it supports.

“What is the strategy other than Doom’s Day panic? Again, this is all stuff that has been kind of a slow ball rolling dting all the way back to late ’22 and early ’23,” he said. “So I think it’s pretty unacceptable that we found out about it through any means other than either from the lobbyists that are helping us so that we don’t get surprised or our congressional delegation who, themselves, were surprised. I am very disappointed on that front. But I don’t want to compound something by then taking to the airwaves and giving off an air of panic. I just don’t think that helps anybody.”

But what will help is for Wayne County to do what it has always done on its darkest days, Bell said — to, as a united front, dig deep and do the hard work that has paid off repeatedly for a community that understands all good things come from sacrifice, passion, and pride.

“Wayne County has shown time and time again throughout history that if we come together as a united front, we’re unstoppable,” he said. “That’s how we prevented bad things from happening to Seymour Johnson before. That’s how we prevented wind turbines from shutting down our low-level flying routes. That’s how we got projects like the Maxwell Center and Center Street. When we come together, we’re an unstoppable force.”

Editor’s Note: A call for comment made Feb. 7 to Friends of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base President Henry Smith has not yet been returned.