Is Floyd County Commonwealth's Attorney Gordon Hannett a local employee who can't be forced out of his job because he has been called to active duty in the Army Reserve?

Or can Floyd Circuit Judge Roy Grubbs replace him because Hannett will be away from the prosecutor's job for a long time?

The Virginia Supreme Court peppered two attorneys with questions yesterday trying to find the right answer to those two questions, which were based on two different state laws.

The issue arose when Hannett, a captain in a Salem-based brigade of the Army Reserve's 80th Division, learned in February that his unit was being called up for what is likely to be a 15-month deployment --three months of training at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Ind., and a year in Iraq.

Hannett has said he plans to manage the office by e-mail and phone while in Iraq and has hired Christiansburg lawyer Dennis Nagel as his part-time assistant to try cases while he is away.

However, Grubbs appointed Floyd lawyer Stephanie Murray-Shortt to take Hannett's position and $5,300-a-month salary while he is on active duty.

Hannett then filed a petition with the Supreme Court alleging that Grubbs had no authority to replace him. The Supreme Court delayed the effect of Grubbs' order and is hearing the case in an expedited manner.

Chris Kowalczuk, Hannett's attorney, said the law that applies to reservists should trump the one that permits removal of a prosecutor by a judge because it was amended more recently, he said.

The law says an employee may notify the person authorized to replace him, but Hannett never did so because he intended to carry out his duties with the aid of Nagel, Kowalczuk said.

John David McChesney, who was appointed to represent Grubbs, responded that the judge made the reasonable determination that effective prosecution required the physical presence of the commonwealth's attorney in the county.

Under Hannett's reasoning, the prosecutor would have the unfettered discretion to hold the office as long as he believes he can perform his duties, McChesney contended.

Robert L. Bushnell, the Henry County prosecutor who is president of the Virginia Association of Commonwealth's Attorneys, said that is precisely the point. Otherwise, there would be a serious separation-of-powers issue between an elected official and the judiciary, Bushnell said.

William Hurd, former Virginia solicitor general and now a partner at Troutman Sanders, filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Bushnell's group and the Virginia Sheriffs' Association expressing the concern of the organizations "with maintaining the autonomy and independence of locally elected officials and ensuring that the discretion and judgment of those officials cannot be infringed by the judicial branch."

ALAN COOPER, Richmond Times Dispatch - Richmond,VA,USA

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June 20, 2005 - Vast new concept of combined forces facility uses Hulman Field as its hub

Let it flow: Indiana National Guardsman Master Sgt. Mike Wallace checks gaskets on pipelines that carry aviation fuel on the base east of Terre Haute. (Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis)

On a battlefield, success belongs to the innovator.

Military histories are filled with stories of how one side, fastest to embrace a new tactic or technological advancement, carried the day. Consider how armored vehicles changed warfare in the 20th century, or how guerrilla tactics have worn down overwhelming conventional forces.

Our generals and political leaders are still working on that one.

The books are just as full of stories of how high command stuck rigidly to old ideas and lost: Cavalry officers who swore the horse would always be more effective in the field than tanks, or admirals who refused to believe an airplane could sink a battleship, even after Billy Mitchell proved one could.

Once the ideas or technologies develop, however, forces have to be trained how to use them.

Maj. Gen. Martin Umbarger, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard, and his staff are developing a plan that combines what Indiana already has, tailored to fit the military's newly envisioned role, to create a training area that is second to none for our Armed Forces.

They are selling it in Washington now, where Umbarger said it "really resonates."

Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field would play a major role.

Expansive training ground

Brig. Gen. Cliff Tooley, director of joint operations, Military District of Indiana, outlined the state's plan in a presentation to local leaders Tuesday during a visit they made to Camp Atterbury, the Army's training and processing center near Columbus.

Grounded employment: A mannequin displays protective gear in the fire department at Hulman Field. The Guard's firefighting unit will remain in place. (Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis)

Included in the tour: the former state hospital property at Muscatatuck, about 40 miles farther south.

The rudiments of the plan simple enough. The vision is remarkable. To allow the group to fully grasp it, Tooley started by explaining how our armed forces view their future.

Post-Cold War American forces have drawn back into the United States from once-permanent bases around the world, he said.

In response to regional needs, the Pentagon will deploy units in packages that rely on the ability to move quickly and to coordinate activity among the branches of service - a concept that the Pentagon, in its enduring willingness to mangle the language to suit its purpose, calls "jointness."

"The Department of Defense puts a great value on jointness," said Umbarger. What it lacks are sites where combined forces can be drawn together to train. "We don't have a lot of places where you can do that. We're fortunate in Indiana to have these resources."

Regular work: Indiana National Guardsman James Morgan from Ridge Farm, Ill., operates a backhoe to repair part of the drainage system on the base in Terre Haute. He is at the 181st Fighter Wing serving his two weeks of active duty. Morgan works from the Civil Engineering department on base, part of the operation that will stay despite BRAC. (Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis)

Movements of large size - demanding flexibility - require specific training, and an area big enough for the military to use that simulates the expanse over which soldiers may be called upon to operate.

Tooley called it a need for a "non-contiguous training area."

The plan would simulate a forward operating base, to which a brigade-sized unit (3,000 to 4,000 soldiers) is transported using the Air Force's heavy lifting capability. At that base, a tent-city arises to accommodate the combat and support elements of the brigade, and to house the supply services.

From there, the unit deploys using light airlift capability - usually helicopters - to smaller support bases, or to the field. Using training facilities at Camp Atterbury, and airfields in places like Seymour, Franklin or Columbus, the military can recreate problems associated with operations in unconnected areas over large distances.

In the Indiana Guard's vision, spearheaded by Umbarger and Tooley, Terre Haute's Hulman Field would become that support base. At full capacity, brigade-sized Army or National Guard units, maybe even the Marines, who have expressed an interest, Umbarger said, would fly in about every other month, establish the base from which exercises would be run into smaller airfields like in Seymour or Franklin, and into the growing training base at Camp Atterbury.

Space exists on land already owned by Hulman Field to set up an Army tent city, or to build whatever permanent structures may be needed to house troops and support elements. The northeast/southwest runway is long enough to accommodate almost any aircraft, and the aprons have space to park several large and a multitude of small ones.

Urban warfare

All that would be compelling enough, but the cornerstone of the plan is Muscatatuck.

Tooley said the Army estimated that in 1950, 22 percent of its fighting was in urban areas. By 2010, it estimates that 75 percent of combat will take place in built-up areas, where irregular forces can use the buildings as a shield.

The Army will need extensive training in an urban environment, one that the former state-owned, self-contained community for the mentally challenged can provide with very little start-up cost, he said.

The Indiana National Guard will take possession of the facility July 1. The cost to the Army: $1.

It once was a self-contained community, with a power plant, water treatment plant, sewage treatment plant, dormitories, a school, a non-denominational chapel, a hospital with a morgue, office space and workshops. It is crisscrossed with about 3,000 feet of underground tunnels, some of which are large enough for small vehicles.

The entire area, including a reservoir, comprises about 1,000 acres. More than 100 acres on the south side is built up with dozens of brick or stone buildings, most of which are multi-story.

Lt. Col. Shane Halbrook, a member of Umbarger's staff, said the Department of Defense has studied plans to build a similar urban training facility that could cost up to $300 million. Muscatatuck already has that kind of construction, with character and complexity that would be hard to design in, he said.

In many ways, it's an almost spooky visit. The school gym still has basketballs, and many of the rooms around the vast campus still have furnishings. Most of the working space could resume operation with little or no additional expense. The Guard will assume it as-is.

Halbrook said another possible element of the plan would be to offer the working facilities to private contractors, with the understanding, and written waiver, that they could become part of the exercise. They could, in a real sense, become the innocent bystanders soldiers encounter in every urban environment.

A variety of urban training scenarios could be accomplished there, Tooley said, and the wide exercise area, spreading back almost 100 miles to Terre Haute, would allow commanders and troops to jump over large territory quickly to operate in confined areas.

Foot and flight

In addition, in what Tooley calls an example of how, "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good," the Indiana Air National Guard applied more than seven years ago to expand military air operating space - airspace dedicated to military use - over the Jefferson Proving Ground. That live-weapon training space is just seconds of flight time from Muscatatuck. The applied-for space would extend above it, allowing military aircraft to conduct training over the facility as troops train on the ground.

Plus, air refueling tracks, still more dedicated military operating airspace, surround Indiana, allowing aircraft to refuel overhead, extending to hundreds of miles the area over which they could transit.

"This plan really resonates," Umbarger said of the reception the plan has received at higher echelons. "Things change. You've got to look to the future."

"What we have Š is a training space that is equaled in only a couple other places in the United States Š and none of them have Muscatatuck," Tooley said. "Everyone wants to play there."

Inclusive training

At Camp Atterbury, Col. Barry Richmond, commanding officer of the base, conducted a tour of the Joint Simulation Training and Exercise Center, which opened in March. The multi-million dollar facility houses the cutting edge of communications and data-linked technology that will allow the Army to run exercises from it over thousands of miles.

Video conferences with units in Afghanistan already have been conducted from there, Richmond said.

Combined with the Pentagon's emphasis on Atterbury for future spending and development, Tooley said, it would be the hub of exercises that could cover the area, and wouldn't be limited to military forces.

"We wanted to position ourselves in the future Department of Defense for force structure, additional missions," Richmond said.

Those additional missions would include homeland security exercises and disaster drills using civilian safety services. The facility can connect to the distance learning centers in Guard armories to conduct exercises, he said.

There are eight such learning centers in the state, including one in Terre Haute.

World-class training

The plan is still under development, and still needs some parts.

The Muscatatuck preserve must be fenced in, and new roads are needed through the facility to prevent use of Jennings County roads.

Halbrook said that cost is estimated at about $11 million, still a far cry from the $300 million it could cost to build something new.

And it needs outside help to become fully operational. The plan calls for the first small-scale exercises to be conducted at Muscatatuck in September 2006, with the full-scale non-contiguous uses ready by fall 2008.

Full-scale use would equate to six brigade-sized exercises annually, each one originating in Terre Haute.

"I want to be honest with you," Umbarger told the Terre Haute group. "We still have some work to do Š I just want to give you a sense of the playing field."

That Terre Haute, or any other location in Indiana, might be included in the plan, however, is secondary to the military's ultimate goal, Tooley said.

"Our primary concern is providing a world-class training opportunity for our men and women," he said.

Peter Ciancone, Terre Haute Tribune Star - Terre Haute,IN,USA

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June 20, 2005 - Delegation learns of opportunities for new facilities

With the military Base Realignment and Closure process in full swing, and Terre Haute recommended to lose its F-16 fighter squadron, the community is at a crossroads, said Mayor Kevin Burke.

"Once again, the City of Terre Haute is faced with a decision. Do we fight to hang on to what's going away, or do we do the hard work and grasp the future?" he said.

A delegation from Terre Haute visited Camp Atterbury on Tuesday to learn about what plans the Indiana National Guard has for the state, and for future use of the Air Guard facility at Hulman Field.

They learned that nothing is set in stone, but there are opportunities both for permanent, new facilities at the airport, and for Terre Haute's inclusion in a vast new training concept that utilizes Hulman Field as its hub.

"I've been really impressed with the comprehensive nature of the plan," said Greg Goode of Indiana State University, after seeing what Maj. Gen. Martin Umbarger, Indiana's adjutant general, has proposed. The training package, planned to include an urban warfare training center at the Guard's soon-to-be-acquired property at Muscatatuck, is the most intriguing because it would give the armed forces a combined forces training facility that it currently does not have.

"What we want is future relevant missions," said Brig. Gen. Cliff Tooley, director of joint operations, Military Department of Indiana. He told community leaders Tuesday that going into BRAC, they knew the Air Guard was vulnerable - Indiana is the only state in the nation with two Guard fighter stations - but they knew Camp Atterbury wasn't. It already has been designated as a primary site for investment by the Pentagon.

Tooley described a vast concept to use Indiana as a training site, a "non-contiguous training area" that covers Hulman Field, smaller airfields in Central Indiana, Camp Atterbury and the former state hospital at Muscatatuck. Large-scale training exercises involving 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers and aircraft would be conducted about six times a year, using Terre Haute as a base.

In that plan, said Rod Henry, president of the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, "A portion of the troops will come early and stay late, perhaps be in Terre Haute for a full three weeks.

"What does this mean? Hotel accommodations, restaurant traffic, other personal services. The actual training exercise will likely mean contractual arrangements with service vendors," he said. "The Chamber of Commerce is continuing to work with the adjutant general's staff to identify and develop business opportunities related to the initiative both here and at the training venues."

Dennis Dunbar, Hulman Field's director, said the influx of major Air Force elements, including the C-17, the military's premier heavy-lift aircraft, and C-130s or airborne tankers, even as transient aircraft, would be a boon to the field.

"We could make out pretty good," he said, through fuel sales alone.

The F-16s that are the most visible part of the 181st Fighter Wing in Terre Haute, may not be in service much longer anyway, said Col. Jeff Hauser, commanding officer of the 181st. Designed to be in service for 3,000 hours flight time, many of the planes have more than 6,000 hours on them. With replacement aircraft already planned, losing them is probably only a matter of time anyway.

The other part of the Guard's plan involves a request for permanent new activities, and while none of them are assured, they include:

-- Aircraft for a Predator squadron - an unmanned craft used for intelligence gathering and targeting;

-- The ground support for them, a "Distributive Data Collection and Analysis" installation that would review intelligence gathered worldwide; or

-- What Hauser calls "enclave" activities that would augment the elements of the Air Guard that aren't moving.

The 181st will retain its civil engineering, medical, firefighting and logistic units. Others could be added to them.

"What we want to do is position ourselves to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves," Tooley said. Having a huge training complex based in Central Indiana would help open those opportunities.

What local leaders want to do is help the Indiana Guard gather the support for its proposals.

"We have chosen to partner with the adjutant general," Burke said. Maj. Gen. Martin Umbarger has been working on plans after BRAC for more than a year, Burke said.

The proposals he has advanced at the national level for use of Hulman Field sound good, Burke said, and tie in well with his hopes for the base.

"I want that base to become the most utilized, diverse, nimble military activity in Indiana, if not the entire Midwest," Burke said. Losing the F-16s may turn out for the best for Terre Haute if the community can help Umbarger sell his plans in Washington.

Peter Ciancone, Terre Haute Tribune Star - Terre Haute,IN,USA

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June 25, 2005 - Guard gets drop on airport

Indiana National Guard parachutists could invade Freeman Municipal Airport in August to practice airborne operations.  Airport officials couldn’t be happier.

Seymour Municipal Airport Authority recently approved a request from the guard to use the airport as a drop zone for parachute training and other airborne maneuvers.

“I think it’s a great idea,” board President Bob Zickler said. “It will be pretty exciting to have them out here.”

The training will be done by the 151st Long Range Surveillance Detachment, comprised of around 20 soldiers, Lt. Col. John J. Nagy of the guard said.

“It won’t be a big disruption to your day-to-day operations here at the airport because it’s not a very big unit,” Nagy said.

“We will announce at least a month ahead of time when we plan to come out and we will have personnel on the ground to help,” Nagy added. “We’ll show up, jump and then go home.”

Nagy expects training will take place quarterly.

The guard began seeking a drop zone months ago because the one at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh is inadequate, Nagy said.

“There are several problems there (Atterbury), including power lines that cross directly over the drop zone area,” Nagy said.

“They also have to shut down one of the shooting ranges when we are jumping because of its location,” Nagy added. “That makes it harder on those soldiers training to be mobilized for the war on terrorism.”

Nagy said Seymour has been on the top of the list in the search for a new location because the airport is wide-open and officials have worked well with the guard in the past.

“Seymour’s airport would be much safer for the troops to train on,” Nagy said.

In 1999, airport officials allowed the guard to conduct another training operation, but on a much larger scale.

“We have a good relationship with you guys,” Nagy said. “You have helped us out and hopefully by being here we have helped your economy and helped your airport get some attention.”

The only disadvantages Nagy pointed out were the airspace use, which he said wouldn’t be frequent or take long periods of time, and crops that are located near the airport. Nagy said the guard would try to avoid disturbing the crops but could occasionally have an off-course parachutist or cargo bundle.

Larry Bothe, an FAA designated pilot examiner and master instructor at the airport, looks forward to the training, even though he will have to watch from the ground.

“Sounds like a lot of fun to me,” he said. “It would be a good opportunity for people to come out and see how they do this stuff.”

Nagy said the guard would perform a drop-zone survey next month to find out if Seymour is suitable for its needs. If everything works out, Nagy said, a rotary wing airborne training operation would take place in August and a fixed-wing operation in September or October. (JANUARY WETZEL, Seymour Daily Tribune - Seymour,IN,USA)