WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, today announced that the U.S. Army National Guard Bureau is sending 50 five-ton trucks to Maine Military Authority (MMA) in Limestone for immediate service and production. According to Tim Corbett, Executive Director of MMA, each vehicle represents 700 hours of work, enough to keep MMA’s current full workforce employed into the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2012.
MMA has been a key provider of humvee repair for the U.S. Army and National Guard for the past 13 years. Senator Collins has repeatedly urged the Army and National Guard to explore additional work opportunities for MMA as the reset of humvees has declined. She has brought several top Army procurement officials to visit the facility multiple times, most recently in April 2010, in a contingent that included Major General Raymond Carpenter, the Chief of the Army National Guard; Kathleen Marin, Director of Installation Services at the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management of the Army; and Kathryn Condon, Special Assistant to Under Secretary of the Army, Dr. Joseph Westphal.
Senator Collins has continued to raise her concerns during private meetings and public hearings with the Army’s senior leadership, including Under Secretary Westphal, General Carpenter, and the Commander of the Army Materiel Command, General Ann Dunwoody, and requested that they look for additional work opportunities for MMA in order to preserve these jobs. Senator Collins also discussed the issue during a Senate Army Caucus meeting in March with Secretary of the Army John McHugh, Army Chief of Staff General George Casey, and other members of the Army’s senior leadership.
“I am pleased that the Army and the National Guard Bureau have once again recognized the quality and craftsmanship of the workforce at MMA,” said Senator Collins. “This work will prevent the layoffs of fifty dedicated employees whose jobs were on the line.”
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