Robins to welcome about 600 workers by end of next year

WARNER ROBINS — Robins Air Force Base will welcome about 600 full-time service members and permanent civilian employees by the end of next year.

The wave of administrative changes and unit relocations announced in recent months will mean a dramatic increase in personnel at the base in a relatively short period of time.

According to figures presented during Monday’s Robins Regional Progress Report by Maj. Gen. Polly Peyer, the commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, and follow-up interviews with two base spokesmen:

n When the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing officially relocates to the base June 23, 120 Marines will be stationed at Robins “at all times,” said John Birdsong, a base spokesman. That’s about 70 more Marines than local officials had expected to receive from the unit.

n Sixty-five to 70 additional airmen and civilians will be added to the base under the Air Force Reserve Command’s new Force Generation Center, Air Force Reserve Command spokesman Jim Miller said. The center, which should be staffed by this October, will help direct Air Force Reserve resources to overseas operations from the command’s Robins headquarters.

n The Defense Logistics Agency Warner Robins is in the process of adding up to 400 additional civilian positions, Birdsong said. The hiring should be completed by the end of 2011, according to Peyer’s presentation.

n When the 202nd Engineering Squadron relocates to Robins this summer from the Middle Georgia Regional Airport in Macon, it will bring seven full-time employees to the base.

After the hiring and relocations are finished by the end of 2011, as many as 597 additional service members and civilian employees will be employed at the base.

The number grows when part-time and reserve personnel are added, as well as personnel who will be stationed at Robins when a C-27J training facility on base is completed.

Peyer said 122 additional personnel will be added to the base to support the training facility by 2013.

Additionally, the 202nd Engineering Squadron will bring 114 part-time employees and the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing will bring several hundred additional reserve Marines, who will work at the base one weekend each month.

The 402nd Maintenance Wing is in the process of hiring about 700 additional employees for its aircraft maintenance operations.

The hiring will be completed by the end of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

To contact writer Thomas L. Day, call 744-4489.