Command moves in: Army National Guard comes to Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field

June 20--TERRE HAUTE -- A relocation of the 81st Troop Command to Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field will bring 32 full-time positions and 66 part-time "citizen soldier" positions, Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger said Tuesday.

Speaking at Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field, Umbarger, Indiana adjutant general, said part-time positions include 21 Army National Guard soldiers and 45 Air National Guard airmen that will generate a combined annual payroll of $427,945. The full-time positions include 30 Army National Guard soldiers and two Air National Guard airmen with a combined annual payroll of more than $2.64 million.

The move also will generate an additional annual expenditure of $275,843 for services, supplies and food contracts.

The relocation from Stout Army Air Field on the southwest side of Indianapolis to Hulman Field also will mean as many as 1,200 Army National Guard troops will be at the airport's base during service drills and operations.

Brig. Gen. Michael J. Osburn, commander of 81st Troop Command, said the unit will be a new tenant as the airport remains home to the 181st Intelligence Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard. The intelligence wing is one of only three such National Guard units in the nation.

"I am really excited that Troop Command is relocating here. Hulman Field is such an excellent facility, and Terre Haute is such a wonderful community," Osburn said.

The 81st Troop Command, initially formed in 1846, is a brigade-sized organization of 2,000 soldiers comprised of engineer units, military police units, medical companies and a chemical company.

The command also serves as the Indiana National Guard's Joint Task Force, designated as Joint Task Force 81, responsible to deploy to local, state and national disasters, both man-made and natural. The task force works with county emergency management agencies and the state's Department of Homeland Security in response to emergencies in Indiana.

Col. Don Bonte, commander of the 181st Intelligence Wing, said the base's hangar, built in 1954, will become fully utilized by the Army National Guard after another building is remodeled on the base to further serve the intelligence wing.

"I think this buys the wing another 54 years of history," Bonte said of the relocation of the Troop Command.

Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett said the relocation "is an important thing for our community from an economic development prospective and to make sure that this base and airport continues to function at a high capacity."

Umbarger said the move is a continuation of a pledge he made in 2005 to keep Hulman Field active in the National Guard. Umbarger said the relocation of the 81st Troop Command "was absolutely the right decision."

Umbarger said the decision to move the 81st Troop Command to Terre Haute was a move for security and disbursement.

"I got all my eggs in one basket," Umbarger said of his commands in the Indianapolis area. "What if something happened to downtown Indianapolis, if it's hit with a terrorist attack or a nuclear bomb goes off, all my headquarters are located in one city?" the adjutant general said.

"Yes, Indianapolis is in the center of the state and is the hub for everything that goes on in Indiana, but we need to get a command element outside of Indianapolis in another location," he said, adding, "where better than to have in than in this beautiful facility, where we have great support from the community and an airfield if we needed to receive federal support that we could fly into this community," he said of the airport's more than 9,000-foot-long main runway.

"I think it is a wonderful thing and is the right thing," Umbarger said of the relocation.

Umbarger said Terre Haute will serve as an alternate headquarters for him if needed in the event of a disaster.

Umbarger said the Intelligence Wing has 424 full-time jobs at Hulman Field, of which 90 are traditional soldiers "that normally would not have had a full-time position in this high-tech, this top-secret mission that goes on here each and every day. ..."

"It is hard to relate this to the local folks. If we were to walk into that facility now, we would see our great airmen sitting there watching [video] feeds from Predators, and U2s and Global Hawks from all over the world ... in some areas, where we are in combat as we speak, making tremendous analysis and decisions and feedback to leaders over in that area of operations to make decisions that are life and death and to the success of missions that are going on each and every day, each and every hour of the day, right here in Terre Haute."

"I want to relate how relevant and essential that mission is. ... Intelligence is something that you need all the time," Umbarger said of Hulman Field's primary military mission. The airport is also headquarters to the Indiana Army National Guard 519 Combat Sustainment Support Battalion.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or [email protected]

Copyright 2012 - The Tribune-Star, Terre Haute, Ind.