April 7, 2008

OKLAHOMA CITY—U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine will dedicate its new national training facility at Will Rogers World Airport, Oklahoma City Friday. CBP deploys the world’s largest law enforcement air force to enhance homeland security and enforce immigration and customs laws.

Reporters and crews will be able to witness the official dedication and ribbon-cutting, get an up-close look at several surveillance planes and helicopters, and will tour the state-of-the-art training facility. Interviews can be arranged with air interdiction agents, trainers and Assistant Commissioner Michael C. Kostelnik, head of CBP Air and Marine.

CBP deploys more than 700 pilots and 267 aircraft to patrol the northern and southern U.S. borders, the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean off Southern California and Mexico as well as airspace extending to Central America. These air assets support CBP’s border security mission and assist other federal and state agencies and respond as needed to perform search, rescue and disaster relief.

What:                          

Dedication Ceremony, U.S Customs and Border Protection’s

National Aviation Training Center, Oklahoma City

When:                         

Friday, April 11, 10 a.m.

(TV setup begins 8 a.m.; informal tour 8:30)

Where:                        

Will Rogers World Airport

5600 Air Cargo Rd.

Oklahoma City, OK 73119

Who:                           

U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe

U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin

CBP Assistant Commissioner Michael Kostelnik, Maj. Gen., USAF-Ret.

Questions/RSVP:         

Eric Blum, 202-344-1585; 703-298-8939 (cell), Eric.D.Blum@DHS.gov

Here is a link to American Airline's last news release about flight cancellations. http://www.aa.com/content/amrcorp/pressReleases/2008_04/09_md80update.jhtml

Here is a link to a story on the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site. It may help answer some of the public's questions about recent flight cancellations.

http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=10196

Doug Loudenback, a popular local blogger in Oklahoma City, posted some interesting vintage postcards of Oklahoma City on www.okctalk.com. Here is one I dug up of Will Rogers World Airport when it was the Oklahoma City Air Terminal. There is no date on it. I think it is so neat. Also, you can't tell this from the scan, but it is textured.

It's been awhile, but I wanted to make sure to post some pictures of what happened on March 19. More than 600 passengers were diverted to Will Rogers yesterday that day due to a funnel cloud rotation over the tower at DFW. Some interesting planes were also diverted including three from South Korea's flagship airline - Korean Air. See photos below. This was a pretty exciting place. There was a real buzz in the with hundreds of people making cell phone calls, powering up their laptops and buying lots of Java Dave's Coffee!

In August 2006, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials broke ground on a $20 million aviation training center at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City. Next week (10:30 a.m., Friday, April 11) the facility will be dedicated. We’ll post some pictures of the celebration of completion of this long-term project, so be sure and check back.

Here is a link to the original news release about the groundbreaking: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/archives/2006_news_releases/082006/08252006.xml

Here is a photo of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection repelling exercise that took place last fall at Will Rogers. One of our airport operations officer's, Terri, snapped this picture.  

In April 1930, the New York Times quoted Will Rogers saying, "Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save." In April 2008, Will Rogers World Airport offers passengers the following reasons to slow down, so not to rush by this beauty. Hats off to airport groundskeeper Kathy Claunch for maintaining various landscapes across the airport campus.