[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 13, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2869-S2870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Ellsworth Air Force Base

  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, the month of May is a special time to 
celebrate the Americans who serve our country in uniform. May is 
Military Appreciation Month.
  On Saturday, we celebrate those currently serving on Armed Forces 
Day, and toward the end of the month, on Memorial Day, we honor those 
who gave their lives in defense of our country.
  South Dakota has a rich heritage of military service, and I am proud 
to represent the men and women carrying on that heritage in the South 
Dakota National Guard at Ellsworth Air Force Base and serving in our 
military around the globe.
  South Dakota is proud to support our troops. Our State is home to two 
major military installations that are fixtures of their communities. 
But 20 years ago, South Dakota was at risk of losing one of these 
bases.
  On May 13, 2005--20 years ago--the Defense Department announced that 
it was recommending South Dakota's Ellsworth Air Force Base for 
closure.
  I am not the only one for whom this was a gut punch. Ellsworth is a 
point of pride in the Black Hills. It has been a national security 
asset since World War II, and it is home to the 28th Bomb Wing's 
squadrons of B-1B Lancers, which were performing a critical role in the 
Global War on Terror.
  But, at the time, Ellsworth was a single-mission base, and the Air 
Force saw savings in moving that mission elsewhere and closing the 
base.
  In May 2005, I was a freshman Senator, 5 months on the job, but now 
my State faced a major test. Losing the base would have been 
devastating to western South Dakota and a significant loss, I might 
add, to our national security. So failure was not an option.
  But Ellsworth faced long odds. Past rounds of the Base Realignment 
and

[[Page S2870]]

Closure Commission suggested we had a 12-percent chance of keeping the 
base open. Some, at the time, were ready to write Ellsworth's obituary, 
knowing it would take a miracle to save the base. Some thought it would 
take a political deal, and they doubted that South Dakota had the clout 
to pull that off.
  We knew we weren't going to save Ellsworth through politics, and we 
weren't going to wait around for a miracle. Instead, we did it the 
South Dakota way. We worked hard--harder than we ever had. There were 
just over 100 days from the announcement in May to the financial 
decision in August, and saving Ellsworth consumed that entire summer.
  My staff and I called everyone we could think of. I am sure the BRAC 
Commission was tired of seeing me that summer, but I was determined to 
drive home the case for keeping Ellsworth open. We poured through reams 
of data to make that case.
  It was a team effort. Bob Taylor, in my Washington office, and Qusi 
Al-Haj, in my Rapid City office, didn't see much of their families that 
summer. The rest of the South Dakota delegation was involved. Then-
Governor Mike Rounds was involved as well. Retired Air Force officers 
like Gen. John Michael Loh and Col. Pat McElgunn lent their voices and 
expertise to the cause. And countless local officials, community 
members, and, of course, the 11,000--11,000--South Dakotans who came to 
the BRAC hearing in Rapid City that June were all part of that team.
  In the end, Ellsworth was not saved by miracles or politics. It was 
saved because we proved that Ellsworth was too valuable to close. 
Moving all the B-1s to another base was supposed to save money, but we 
proved that wouldn't actually be the case.
  Plus, we demonstrated the Pentagon's analysis failed to account for a 
number of other factors. Consolidating the entire fleet of bombers in 
one place was a major vulnerability. An attack, extreme weather, or any 
issue at that base could ground the entire fleet of B-1s. And 
consolidation risked overwhelming maintenance and training capacity at 
that base.
  It turned out that Ellsworth was just what the Air Force needed. That 
is the argument that we made. As Colonel McElgunn put it to the BRAC 
Commissioners, ``Ellsworth has operational advantages to make it the 
ideal base for the 21st century.'' And as General Loh testified, 
``closing Ellsworth will deny the Pentagon a valuable base for future 
missions.''
  Ultimately, in August, the BRAC Commission agreed, and it voted 8 to 
1 to keep Ellsworth open. And since then, those predictions have proven 
right. Ellsworth's B-1s have been a consistent asset to our national 
security.
  In 2011, B-1s left Ellsworth to strike targets in Libya, marking the 
first time a B-1 fleet launched from the United States to strike 
overseas targets.
  Last year, Ellsworth B-1s conducted a CONUS-to-CONUS mission, taking 
a continuous 31-hour flight to the Indo-Pacific and back without 
landing.
  And we have continued working to demonstrate Ellsworth's value and to 
ensure its future will never again be in jeopardy.
  In 2007, the Air Force Financial Services Center arrived on base. In 
2012, the 89th Attack Squadron came to Ellsworth to control MQ-9 Reaper 
drones from ground control stations in South Dakota.
  In 2015, after a decade of work, we expanded the Powder River 
Training Complex, nearly quadrupling its size and making it the largest 
training airspace in the lower 48.
  And in 2021, the Air Force announced that Ellsworth would officially 
be named the first operating base for the new B-21 Raider, a sixth-
generation long-range strategic bomber.
  From BRAC to B-21, and the story continues.
  Madam President, 20 years ago, Ellsworth was said to be a liability. 
Today, it is very clear that it is a national security asset, and I am 
working to make sure the base and the surrounding community have what 
they need to continue to play a key role in our national defense for 
generations to come.