Friday, January 11, 2013
The Air Force has named the Moon Township base a candidate to receiving the Boeing KC-46A refueling aircraft.
The 171st Refueling Wing in Moon Township has been named a candidate base to receive new Boeing KC-46A refueling aircraft, according to an Air Force statement. Four other Air National Guard bases have also been selected as candidates to receive the KC-46A tanker, including installations in Ohio, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Kansas. The Air Force is seeking to establish two main mobile operating bases for the aircraft—one an Air National Guard base and the other an active-duty Air Force base. The 171st Refueling Wing is now home to more than a dozen KC-135 tankers, which were manufactured in the 1950s. The newer KC-46A is capable of carrying more cargo and fuel than its predecessor, according to the Air Force. Establishing the new …
The opening of a Moon Township military commissary has been pushed back after contractors failed "delineate responsibilities," according to officials.
A series of setbacks in the construction of a 43,000 square-foot Moon Township military commissary has delayed the facility's planned opening. The commissary, which will serve as a grocery store for 170,000 military personnel in the tri-state region, was originally slated to open in October 2013, but work stoppages have pushed back that opening date to the spring of 2014, officials said. Crews first broke ground in August on the $17 million facility, which will sit at the corner of University Boulevard and the Interstate 376 Business Route. Work on the commissary had reached a "near standstill" in recent weeks, according to a joint statement released by Reps. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, and Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills, Congressmen …
Friday, December 28, 2012
The Pennsylvania governor speaks at the Moon Township-based air wing, urging military officials to scrap plans to shutter the base.
Standing beneath the wings of a C-130 aircraft at the 911th Airlift Wing, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said he would work with Pennsylvania's federal lawmakers to fight renewed plans to close the Moon Township air base. Corbett, appearing alongside Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, and state Sen. Matt Smith, D-Mt. Lebanon, implored military officials and federal lawmakers to end efforts to close the 911th as a cost-saving measure. "I'm going to ask our (Pennsylvania) congressional delegation to do whatever they need to do to save this base," Corbett said. The U.S. Air Force has again taken initial steps toward closing the airlift wing after March 2013— after the expiration of a law put…
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U.S. Air Force
2475 Defense Ave, Coraopolis, PA
/articles/gov-corbett-backs-efforts-to-save-911th-airlift-wing
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1000 Airport Boulevard, Coraopolis, PA
/articles/gov-corbett-backs-efforts-to-save-911th-airlift-wing
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Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Lawmakers are again working to stave off a closure of the Moon Township air reserve station.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee has endorsed efforts to prevent the Moon-based 911th Airlift Wing from closing down. Rep. Buck McKeon, R-CA, today urged Air Force officials to halt efforts to close the air wing as a cost-cutting measure. According to a statement from McKeon: Installations like the Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station have been vital to supporting our men and women deployed in harms way. New concepts in warfare have made our soldiers on the ground more dependent than ever on airlift assets like Pittsburgh's C-130s. The Air Force didn't take those missions into account when they offered their plans to cut inventory earlier this year. Congress has directed them to correct that error and fully appreciate the …
Students send care packages and words of support for troops as they celebrate the holidays while deployed.
Megan Turak said it started out with pillows and a poster board—students at Moon Area High School were to sign the items and send them to troops serving in Afghanistan. "But the outpouring of support that came from the students was just incredible," Turak said. "I was just amazed, really, by the students' support and the depth of their understanding." Turak, of the Scott-Township based Military Family Network, said students in the district went above and beyond, gathering donations for a care package to the troops and penning more than 200 letters, sent to soldiers serving at Forward Operating Base Sharana in central-eastern Afghanistan. The soldiers opened the care package on Dec. 16, when they celebrated at the base with a small …
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Pennsylvania senators disapprove of the most recent efforts to shut down the 911th Airlift Wing, according to a joint letter addressed to Armed Services Committee leadership.
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012
In a letter to Senate leadership, Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Zionsville, expressed their disapproval of recent efforts to close the 911th Airlift Wing in Moon Township. Casey and Toomey submitted a joint letter to Sen. Carl Levin, R-MI, chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, and ranking member Sen. John McCain, R-AZ. The correspondence was provided Monday during a meeting of the Military Affairs Coalition of Western Pennsylvania. Read the letter in full, dated Nov. 26, below: Dear Chairman Levin and Ranking Member McCain: We are writing to express our opposition to any fiscal year 2013 Air Force restructuring proposal which would close the Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, home of the …
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Officials will discuss the future of the air base with reservists and Moon-area community members.
After dodging a planned 2012 closure, Moon Township's 911th Airlift Wing is again in jeopardy. The Air Force is pursuing an effort to shut down the base in March 2013—right after a temporary law to prevent such a closure expires, according to a statement from Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair . Murphy will host a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at the Moon Municipal Building. The meeting is open to the public. The Congressman will discuss the future of the air reserve base and take questions. The proposed 2012 closure was a part of a plan to trim $8.7 billion from the Air Force's 2013 budget. The closure would have included the elimination of the base's 1,100 military and 300 civilian positions. The 911th was first targeted for…
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1000 Beaver Grade Rd, Moon Township, PA
/articles/threat-to-close-moon-s-911th-renews-town-hall-meeting-planned
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Monday, November 12, 2012
To commemorate Veterans Day, share stories of the veteran in your life.
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Monday, November 12, 2012
Did you or a loved one serve our country during World War II, Korea, Vietnam or more recent engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan? If so, Patch wants to see your photos and videos and to share your story. Got pictures or stories about service members in your family or circle of loved ones? We'd love to share them as well. Simply upload your photos by clicking the “Submit Your Photos” button above the main image. We will be honored to feature them on Veterans Day. Be sure to add a caption telling us about the veteran in the photo and the service member's story. Thank you for your contributions and for your service.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
The commissary is slated to open in fall of 2013.
Work is underway on the long-planned 43,000 square-foot regional military commissary at the corner of University Boulevard and the Interstate 376 Business Route. State and Congressional officials earlier this month held a ground-breaking ceremony to mark the occassion. The commissary—which will serve as a grocery store and trading post for the region's nearly 200,000 active military personnel—is expected to open in the fall of 2013. Click here for more.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Rep. Tim Murphy and Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner call for the Air Force to be more transparent in potential closure of Moon Township air base.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner hopes to audit the 911th Airlift Wing in an effort to save the Moon Township base from a potential closure in the coming years. Wagner and Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, will spearhead an audit of the 911th and present its findings to Air Force officials to stave off another closure attempt, the pair announced on Wednesday. The two sent a joint letter to U.S. Defense Department Secretary Leon Panetta and Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, outlining the air wing's efficiencies and requesting additional data used in the Air Force's decision earlier this year to close the base. The Air Force planned to shut down the 911th this year as a cost-cutting measure, eliminating each of its more than…
RealMoonResident
8:40 am on Friday, January 11, 2013
Nice ! I'll be very surprised if Boeing sticks to its schedule, but I'm sure it would be a great reward to everyone there, flight and maintenance, to be given new hardware. Not only is it a more capable aircraft, but their training and experience would be more relevant to industry. The KC-46A is based on the Boeing 767 and will be using modern turbofan engines and a modern flight deck. Their … more ›