Civilian Workers Return To CAFB

PRESS RELEASE

COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. – In accordance with a memo Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel released Oct. 5, the Air Force recalled most of the nearly 104,000 Air Force civilian Airmen placed on emergency furlough due to government shutdown.

For Columbus AFB, 236 DoD civilians returned to work today as the base continues to push through the government shutdown.

“All of our DoD civilian members came back to work today,” said Col. Jim Sears, 14th Flying Training Wing commander. “We have definitely felt the impact of the manning shortfall and we are happy to have our civilian Airmen back. While this is good news, we can’t forget that we are still in a government shutdown. Despite the shutdown, we will continue to conduct the 14th Flying Training Wing mission to Produce Pilots, Advance Airman and Feed the Fight.”

Columbus AFB’s Commissary, which also was affected by government shutdown, will reopen its doors Tuesday Oct. 8 at 9 a.m. and will resume normal operation hours. However because of the closure, the commissary has not been able to reorder and the store might be low on certain items.

Several Columbus AFB contracted functions are still affected by the government shutdown and are still pending full DoD funding.