U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, is keeping up to date on the expansion of a northwest Missouri Air National Guard base.

On Thursday, he toured Rosecrans Memorial Airport in St. Joseph, where the 139th Airlift Wing is hoping to land the new C-130 J cargo plane. Schmitt said he understands the stiff competition for the J planes.

“I feel like we’ve got a great case to make, and we’re making that,” Schmitt told Missourinet affiliate KFEQ in St. Joseph. “There’s a new director of the Air National Guard coming in…we talked about this specifically. And I just think that the best selling point I think you can make is we’re training people from around the world to fly the planes, the C-130 J’s, (but) we don’t have them here.”

The Air National Guard faulted some of the facilities at Rosecrans when it passed over the air base in its first allocation of C-130 J planes. The 139th is flying the older C-130 H planes.

Leaders of the 139th walked Schmitt through the new airport terminal that is nearly completed and showed off the new air traffic control tower under construction. He said the new construction is vital to convincing the Air National Guard that the 139th deserves the new C-130 J planes.

“You see this commitment from the city too, right, with the 85 acres here to the north where a lot of the new construction is going to be happening or happening,” Schmitt said. “It’s a combined effort of federal, state, and local, and I think that’s how we put our best foot forward. So, these upgrades are really important in that process.”

The 139th trains pilots throughout the country and around the world at its Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center at Rosecrans Airport.

KFEQ’s Brent Martin contributed this story.

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