349th Air Mobility Wing commander participates in ribbon cutting ceremony

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Robert Couse-Baker
  • 349th Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Colonel Matthew J. Burger, 349th Air Mobility Wing commander, together with military and civilian officials, completes the two-part ribbon cutting ceremony opening Travis Air Force Base's reconstruction runway 3R-21L, March 28, 2013.

The celebration was hosted by Col. Dwight Sones, 60th Air Mobility Wing commander. Speakers included Rep. John Garamendi (3rd District California), and Sam Baldi of Baldi Brothers Construction Co., the project's prime contractor.

The project includes a new assault-landing training runway, which will allow C-17 crews to practice combat landing locally, rather than at distant out-of-state sites. The new addition will save taxpayers more than $7.3 million per year in fuel costs. The $68 million contract was awarded in September 2008 and overseen by Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest. 

The new runway completely replaces a one built in 1946, when the base was known as Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base. The ceremony was timed to take place immediately before the first real-world use of the runway. A Travis C-17 Globemaster III with a combined 60th/349th, Reserve and active-duty crew, did a touch-and-go landing at 10:20 a.m.