(Radio Iowa) – Iowa National Guard Adjutant General Steve Olson says the Pentagon has authorized adding dozens of new positions to the Iowa Guard — and major infrastructure projects are underway.
The 137 new positions are for combat engineers as well as soldiers who’ll work in cyber security and field artillery. Later this year, there will be a groundbreaking in Sioux City for a new 14-million-dollar Army National Guard maintenance facility. And Olson says the F-A-A has notified the guard that within two years a runway at Sioux City’s airport will be unsafe for Air Guard planes carrying massive amounts of fuel to take off to resupply military aircraft in mid-flight.
Olson says they hope to line up federal funding soon to rebuild the runway so it’s bigger and thicker, to accommodate the heavy refueling aircraft.
