It's a military-wide reality that is affecting every post and base across the country. While this will no doubt have an impact on Scott, the Metro East, and the region as a whole, there's not a whole lot to be done about it now. It's important to note that this isn't any indication about the future of Scott, rather just an unfortunate consequence of a drawdown.

My friends in the Air Force have been talking about this for the past year and a half or so.

Roughly. I can't speak for the Air Force, but I know the Army is cutting down to 490,000 from 530,000 at the end of last November. Using an internet search I find that in 2000 and 2001 the Army was around 480,000. However, I've heard murmurs that the cuts could go all the way down to 420,000, which would be the lowest number since pre-WWII, so I don't know how accurate that is. There's been nothing official except for the 490,000 number, so I would expect the other services to yield back to pre-9/11 numbers as well.

wabash wrote:^That's great news.

Whenever the next round of Air Force consolidation occurs I wouldn't mind seeing Whiteman shut down and the 509th Bomb Wing moved to Scott. The more military in the metro the better.

The Air Force would never do that. They seem to keep the Command centers by cities (like Mobility at Scott AFB) and leave the bombers and fighters at more remote bases.