Military Advocate Weekly Update
April 1, 2018
Happy Easter weekend to everyone! Last week was a busy one around Missouri’s
military and defense sector and I am happy to again report on some of the many
happenings around the state. I only
traveled out of the office once—to be with Fort Leonard Wood community leaders
for a dinner—but I had a full agenda of issues to deal with back in the
office. It is my pleasure to highlight a
few of them.
St.
Louis Area Working Group
There was a milestone event last week involving the St. Louis Area Working Group (SLAWG), an
industry and public sector collaborative that has been meeting since early last
fall. The SLAWG is studying possible
strategies to help the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) find the talented
workforce and attract the number of cutting edge tech companies it needs to
best carry out its work when its new West Campus opens in just over five years. Several Missouri government agencies,
including the Department of Economic Development (DED) and my office, were present
at a SLAWG meeting on Wednesday where it was announced that a new organization called
“GEOSTL” has been formed by industry
leaders.
GEOSTL is following in the footsteps of BioSTL, which was
formed by St. Louis civic, academic and business leaders to promote medical and
plant science, innovation and entrepreneur success. I will write more in coming
weeks about the significance of this new organization.
Preliminary
data from the Military Impact Report
An economist from the University of Missouri’s Community Economic and Entrepreneurial
Development (ExCEED) program has been working since December on contract to
my office to produce an annual update to our report, “An Assessment of the Impact of Military Spending in Missouri”,
which was first published in January 2017.
That report averaged data from the three previous years to get a clear
picture of the impact of military installations and agencies, all uniformed and
civilian personnel, and defense contractors on the state’s economy.
This year’s work by ExCEED is going well and we are on
track for the new report to be released in early May 2018. Unlike last year when we were only able to
get data from the Pentagon, we have been in direct contact with the roughly 35
locations around the state where significant numbers of military or national
security personnel work.
Based on preliminary information, we have more than 16,300 uniformed personnel on active duty,
almost 14,000 National Guardsmen and
Reservists, and about 12,500 defense
civilians working in Missouri—for a total of almost 42,500. This number does not include the tens of thousands of
trainees who stay for a short period at Fort Leonard Wood and our other
installations. Yet to be reported are the number of employees who work for
defense contractors in the state. When
published, the report will estimate the direct and indirect (multiplier effect)
jobs and contributions to Missouri’s economy, which last year accounted for
more than 7% of Missouri’s workforce.
For those who want to look at last year’s report, you can find it here, Military
Impact Report.
Change
of gate access hours at Whiteman AFB
Brigadier
General John Nichols, Commander of the 509th Bomb Wing
at Whiteman AFB, has announced changes to gate access hours at Whiteman
beginning Monday, April 2. These local
changes are in response to a large number of recent gate breeches across the
Air Force that has caused the Service to raise its force protection level. At
Whiteman the changes include:
·
Arnold Gate (Knob Noster) hours will be
changed to 6 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday through Friday only.
·
LeMay Gate (South/Commercial) will be closed
to all privately owned vehicles and will only be open to contractor and
commercial vehicles from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
·
Spirit Gate (Main) hours will remain open
24/7, but with additional security measures
Panel
at the Association of Defense Communities Summit in June
In my role on the Board of Directors and Vice President
of the Association of Defense
Communities (ADC), I have the pleasure of helping determine the agenda
for our upcoming national ADC Summit in Washington, D.C. in late June. Of particular interest to me has been
focusing our association on how communities and state can
increase the quality of life for our Service members and families, especially
through supporting high quality schools and providing opportunities for spousal
employment (and the promise of a job for those who leave the Service).
To that end I have been working with the ADC staff to
establish a panel discussion at the June Summit involving Community Leaders,
Installation Commanders, and Professional Educators that will bring together the
best examples we can find of where the military and community leaders are working
together on improving educational opportunities and increasing work
opportunities around our military installations.
I am happy to report that the Secretary of the Air Force, Dr. Heather Wilson, has accepted our
invitation to be the lead speaker at this panel, and that Dr. Jerrod Wheeler, Superintendent of the Knob Noster R-VIII School
District has agreed to be one of the panelists.
Dr. Wilson has been an outspoken advocate for state and local action to
improve schools for military-connected children and Dr. Wheeler and his Board
have made tremendous improvements in Knob Noster Schools, where almost 60%
of its students are from military families. Also making great strides in this
area—and who was an ADC panelist last year—is Dr. Brian Henry, Superintendent of the Waynesville R-IV District.
Week
ahead
During the week ahead, I will plan to attend a meeting
the Fort Leonard Wood Committee of Fifty
that will include a very special guest, and also attend a monthly luncheon of
the Whiteman Base Community Council.
I also have several conference calls scheduled in connection with the upcoming
ADC Summit in Washington, D.C.
Until next week, I welcome your feedback on the work I am
doing on behalf of our military and defense sector.
(Joe.Driskill@ded.mo.gov)
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