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Historic Mo. Guard wing shuts down Saturday

ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Air National Guard’s 131st Fighter Wing, which once included a lanky young pilot named Charles Lindbergh, will shut down Saturday as part of a series of base closures nationwide.

The unit spent 86 years protecting the air space over St. Louis and much of the Midwest — an area that now includes nuclear reactors, defense plants, ballparks and one of the nation’s most recognizable monuments, the Gateway Arch.

But the federal base closure panel deemed it one of several expendable Guard units and voted in 2005 to shut it down. The Air Force decided the next year to move the St. Louis pilots, operations and maintenance staff to Whiteman Air Force Base in western Missouri.

Efforts by state and federal lawmakers to overturn the decision — including a lawsuit filed by then-Gov. Matt Blunt — failed.

On Saturday, an “End of Era” ceremony will officially shut down the fighter wing’s flying operation near Lambert Airport. Invited guests will watch the F-15s fly away one last time.

“The fighter jets have been such a staple of the community,” Capt. Bridget Zorn said Thursday. “Losing that is a loss for everybody.”

About 560 military personnel, 250 or so of them full-time, will move to Whiteman. Some workers who perform administrative duties will remain in St. Louis.

The pilots will no longer fly the F-15 Eagle at Whiteman. Instead, they’ll be the only Air Guard pilots in the nation flying B-2 stealth bombers.

The new challenge helps offset some of the melancholy for those leaving St. Louis, Zorn said.

“It’s intriguing, it’s exciting to be on the leading edge of stealth technology,” she said.

Three brothers started the St. Louis Air Guard unit in 1923 with one war surplus plane. A year later, Lindbergh joined what was then known as the 110th Observation Squadron. He was a squadron captain when he made his historic trans-Atlantic solo flight in 1927.

Some lawmakers still question the decision to close the base in St. Louis, saying Air Guard units have become more important since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

“With this foolhardy decision, the Pentagon has weakened our ability to protect critical regional infrastructure,” Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said in a statement.

Gov. Jay Nixon lauded the Air Guard unit’s long history, including its involvement in every conflict over the past 65 years. The unit also has pitched in with natural disasters, from Hurricane Katrina to severe storms that swept across Missouri in 2006.

“While it is sad to lose this important asset to the St. Louis area, Missouri still plays a vital role in our country’s air defense system, with the new 131st Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base maintaining and flying the B-2 bomber,” Nixon said.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said she’ll miss the 131st and its jets’ distinctive St. Louis Cardinals tail markings “because they have long been a symbol of our community pride, our love of country and our commitment to our country’s security.”

She called closure of the unit “a great loss to Missouri as well as the United States.”