PENSACOLA, Fla. – In case you missed it, today, the Pensacola News Journal published an article highlighting the concerns of Senator Rick Scott regarding Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall’s suspected decision to move members of the Air Force Special Operations Command away from Hurlburt Field in Florida’s Panhandle, without acknowledging the time-honored process to give proper notice or discussion.

Reporting for the Pensacola News Journal, Tom McLaughlin writes, “U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and Florida's First District Congressman Matt Gaetz promised Tuesday to work aggressively to thwart action by the Department of the Air Force they believe could drastically impact the Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field. In a conference call, Scott said that he, Gaetz and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Republicans all, had been contacted three days ago by Frank Kendall, the Secretary of the Air Force, to schedule a Friday phone call to discuss ‘programmatic basing actions’ involving Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. Scott said the legislators have not been able to confirm anything since receiving the cryptic message and the Air Force has been tight lipped about revealing anything else before Friday.

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The timing of Kendall's planned phone call is suspicious, the senator said, because it will come one day after the Senate votes to pass the National Defense Authorization Act approving Department of Defense budgets and the same day both houses of Congress recess for five weeks.

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‘We have busted our butts,’ he said. ‘I have never heard from anybody in the military saying we are not fulfilling our military's needs in Florida.’ He said he, Gaetz and Rubio are poised to be ‘very aggressive’ in working to keep the Special Operations Command at Hurlburt and protect any other Florida commands that might be threatened. ‘We are going to do everything in our power to prevent the Biden Administration from playing politics,’ Scott said.

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Efforts to contact public information officers at Hurlburt Field or the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force were not successful Tuesday.

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‘To me, this is suspicious,’ the congressman, whose Panhandle district is also home to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Whiting Field, Eglin Air Force Base, Duke Field and the Seventh Special Forces Group, said. ‘There is nothing to show Florida is not the best location to house these commands.’

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Scott said that any sudden move by the Air Force to move the Hurlburt Field Special Operations Command would violate a time-honored process by which commands are traditionally transferred from one location to another…”

Read the full story in the Pensacola News Journal HERE.

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