USMC marketing specialist explains things to the Yuma rent-seekers

The rent-seekers at Yuma need answers.

Fortunately a USMC marketing specialist for the F-35 was there to help:

Asked how secure the future of MCAS and the F-35 might be, De Jong responded that he's encouraged by three things

First, Lockheed Martin, builder of the F-35, is a “savvy” company, he said, and has operations in every state so there would be a lot of support for it. Second, several countries have the same scenario as the U.S.: aging aircraft and nothing to replace them except the F-35. Third is the $400 million investment in MCAS Yuma.

Yuma can rest safe. Test pilots will start parking F-35s there by the end of the year. Test pilots because student pilots don't start training, until the end of the year.

Many can see the benefits of a defective combat aircraft concept which has no worth toward defending the nation:

Evan Fuller, general manager of the Radisson Hotel, told the gathering that he has seen a 30 percent increase in government guests in the first quarter of the year over the previous year. Many of them are with Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors.

Don Peterson, owner of DPE, said his company was awarded $25 million in contracts at MCAS from concrete to electrical work. That has enabled him to nearly double his work force from 95 last year to 189 today, with many of the hirees people he had been forced to lay off with the economic downturn. He also has purchased millions of dollars in materials from other local businesses.

Peterson's grateful for the work he has at MCAS and is “excited to hear about the upcoming work. I hope to be a part of that, too.”