By KWMU
Mascoutah, Ill. – 
Scott Air Force Base emerged as the big winner in Illinois with the release Friday of the Pentagon's recommended closings and realignments of U.S. military bases.
A crowd gathered at Mid-America Airport this morning, before the Pentagon made its official announcement, to hear from southern Illinois Congressman Jerry Costello that Scott would not be on that list.
Scott is the Metro-East's largest employer and it barely survived the last round of closures in 1995. Costello says the process to save Scott started the day the last round of base closures ended.
"We sat down and gathered all of the data from the BRAC Commission report in 1995 to determine - through the BRAC process then - what improvements we needed to make before the next BRAC, knowing there would be another BRAC some day."
Under the realignment plan, Scott should see an increase of 800 jobs. The base already employs more than 13,000 people and generates an estimated $2.2 billion annually for the region's economy.
ILLINOIS
Other bases in Illinois will lose a total of about 2,700 jobs. But no military bases in Illinois will close.
The Pentagon wants to cut about 160 jobs from the Air National Guard Station at Capital Airport in Springfield. More than 2,000 jobs would be cut at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago and 1,200 jobs would be cut at the Rock Island, Ill. Arsenal. The National Guard station in Peoria would gain about 30 positions.
MISSOURI
In Missouri, no bases are slated to close either. But Lambert Airport would lose its 131st Fighter Wing.
The Pentagon's plan would also close the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Kansas City and St. Louis. That will mean a few hundred job losses.
Missouri will lose a total of 1,200 military and 2,400 civilian workers.
KWMU's Matt Sepic was covering the news conference at Mid-America Airport. He spoke with KWMU's Tom Weber Friday morning, just after Costello's announcement. To hear that interview, click on the 'listen' icon above.