Regional Chamber Backs Locating Space Command in Dayton

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber is among those calling for the U.S. Space Command headquarters to be located at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.

The Regional Chamber and several business groups sent a letter to President Joe Biden, identifying Wright-Patterson as the best location for the headquarters.

“As the center for science and technology, intelligence, and graduate education for both Air Force and Space Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, outside Dayton, Ohio, cannot be exceeded among military installations in the breadth and depth for support of our nation’s space-related defense activities,” the letter states.

“Ohio’s history of support for national defense, along with its many space-related resources, would make a fitting host for new Space Force missions or the permanent headquarters of the U.S. Space Command, should the decision on the location be revisited,” the letter continues.

The letter was signed by:

• Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber; 
• Bill Koehler, CEO of Team NEO; 
• Jeff Hoagland, president and CEO of Dayton Development Coalition; 
• Mike Jacoby, president and CEO of Ohio Southeast; 
• Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of Columbus Partnership; 
• Dean Monske, president and CEO of Regional Growth Partnership Northwest Ohio; 
• Kimm Lauterbach, president and CEO of REDI Cincinnati;
• Baiju R. Shah, president and CEO of Greater Cleveland Partnership; 
• Steve Millard, president and CEO of Greater Akron Chamber; 
• Wendy Gramza, president and CEO of Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Coviello also announced the Mahoning Valley has secured a pilot program, which would allow Wright-Patterson engineers to live in the Youngstown-Warren region and work remotely.

“Valley companies receive work from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,” Coviello said. “In fact, Wright-Patt is the largest source of business for one of our companies. Bringing Space Force, or pieces of Space Force, to Ohio provides our businesses with expansion opportunities. It allows us an opportunity to expand the remote work program the Pentagon is piloting here.”

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and several Ohio U.S. representatives also are part of the effort and sent a joint letter to Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman. They wrote that the numerous industry and university parties in the state – along with existing U.S. Air Force and NASA bases and facilities – make Ohio ideally suited to host U.S. Space Command and Space Force units.

Brown suggests the U.S. Space Command and additional units would partner with the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky.

“There is no better place in the country than Ohio for the Space Command headquarters and additional Space Force units. Our state is ready to lead our military into the next frontier,” Brown said from the Senate floor during a speech last week. “From the Wright brothers, to American heroes like John Glenn and Neil Armstrong, the story of modern aviation was written in Ohio. And our state continues to lead the country in aerospace innovation and in military service – we have nearly a million veterans in Ohio.”

Pictured at top: Photo via Facebook | Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.