This and next week, the U.S. Army will be staging military training exercises out of the Barstow-Daggett Airport.
The exercises to be carried out will involve ground troops as well as members of the Army’s Air Cavalry. The Army has traditionally held such maneuvers in the Dog Days of summer, as the desert heat is a key condition to the exercises.
In a report to the board of supervisors dated July 21, James E. Jenkins, the director of the San Bernardino County Department of Airports wrote, “The Army has requested the use of an unoccupied portion of the Barstow-Daggett Airport to conduct military training exercises through the proposed license agreement. Authorizing this license agreement with the Army aligns with the county’s goal of working with other agencies and maintaining jobs in the county by facilitating the Army’s mission at Fort Irwin. The license agreement will authorize the Army to conduct military training on an unoccupied portion of the Barstow-Daggett Airport for a twenty-four hour period during the agreement term of July 22, 2015 through July 27, 2015, for no fee paid to the county. The specific exercise date will be mutually agreed by the parties with at least three business days advance notice.”
Jenkins told the Sentinel, “Typically the Army holds these exercises in July or August. This year there will be two separate and discrete events. One exercise is to involve an Army Air Fleet unit out of North Carolina entailing rapid refueling for helicopters. The unit will deploy a large fuel bladder. Upon being fueled, the helicopters will fly sorties, come down and then be rapidly refueled on the ground for another rapid take-off.
“The second event will involve troops from Fort Irwin engaging in ground exercises associated vacant housing we have at the airport,” Jenkins continued. “Those exercises will entail the breaching of the grounds’ facilities using coordinated close combat, in a situation and environment replicating an urban setting for the Army’s readiness training purposes.”
According to Jenkins’ report, the exercise was carried out on the county-owned property pursuant to a “license agreement with the U.S. Government that authorizes the U.S. Department of the Army to utilize an unoccupied portion of Barstow-Daggett Airport for military training, for no fee paid to the county, for a twenty-four hour period during the agreement term of July 22, 2015 through July 27, 2015 There is no fee paid to the county for the use of the Barstow-Daggett Airport for the stated purpose but the U.S. Department of the Army will perform clean-up and clearing of the site which is beneficial to the county.”