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VAFB, Lompoc Valley Look to Avoid Pentagon Cuts

LOMPOC VALLEY - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is proposing to cut nearly half a trillion dollars over the next ten years including cuts to the Air Force.

"The military will be smaller and leaner", Panetta told reporters this week at the Pentagon, "but it will be agile, flexible, rapidly deployable and technologically advanced." 

The announcement comes on the heels of an historic change of command at Vandenberg Air Force Base, home to the 14th Air Force.

Col. Nina Armagno is the first woman to command Vandenberg's 30th Space Wing which oversees the main mission of the base, space launch. 

Col. Armagno says 2012 will be a busy year for missile and rocket launches at VAFB. 

"We have an exciting launch year ahead of us", Col. Armagno said during her induction ceremony this week, "more opportunities to be the gateway to space for our great nation." 

Any cutbacks or other major changes at the base have a direct impact to the city of Lompoc and the Lompoc Valley. 

"It's huge", says Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce CEO Ken Ostini, "Vandenberg has long been a big part of the economy for Lompoc as well as the county." 

Specific cuts at Vandenberg Air Force Base are not yet known and probably won't be until Secretary Panetta presents his budget to Congress next month. 

But any talk of military cutbacks echoes loudly in the Lompoc Valley. 

"Its worrisome to everyone to hear that", Ostini says, "I know our hotels here in town rely very heavily on the people that come to Vandenberg, TDY, from other bases, contractors that come in for special launches, that has a huge impact, when they are not staying in the hotels, not eating in the restaurants, their not renting cars, tremendous impact on the community." 

Vandenberg Air Force Base has evolved into the largest employer in Santa Barbara County with an estimated economic impact of more than $1.5 billion a year.