Cong. Smith was the guest speaker at the grand opening of the new $43 million Army Aviation Support Facility at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst on the Ocean County side of the base.
Members of the NJ National Guard and the NJ Department of Military and Veteran Affairs welcome Congressman Smith to their new facility.
The Army Aviation Support Facility is the newest facility on the 65-square mile joint Army, Air Force and Navy installation that also includes large Marine and Coast Guard Facilities.
Congressman Smith, right, and Four Star General Gen. Carlton Everhart, commander of the Air Mobility Command, met to discuss Jt. Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst's prospects for new tankers in early 2016.
Gen. Everhart, Rep. MacArthur and Rep. Smith meet to discuss Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and the potential of the Air Force sending replacement refueling tanker aircraft in the future.
Courier Post Page 1 article on Joint Base MDL published on June 24, 2016.
By Carol Comegno, Courier-Post Staff Writer -
Hundreds of civilian employees will be getting a holiday present—an automatic raise in their pay scales to bring them in line with the higher federal scale of the New York region.
The shift to a higher compensation scale will benefit 600 federal Civil Service workers on the Army and Air Force sections of the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County on what used to be Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base. It will bring them to parity with employees at the naval air installation in the base's Lakehurst section in Ocean County, which is already on the New York locality pay scale as are all the white collar workers across the entire base.
In a joint statement, Reps. Chris Smith and Thomas MacArthur, both R-N.J., said the U.S. Office of Personnel Management will issue regulations Wednesday to effect the shift for wage grade (WG) system employees. The switch takes place Jan.1
“Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is one installation and the men and women who work there are part of one workforce,” said Smith, who represents half of the Joint Base and who authored the Joint Base Pay Parity Act that was never fully implemented. “It means the men and women of the Joint Base’s workforce will finally be paid equally and fairly."
The joint base is the largest employer in the state, second only to the state government, and contributes $6.9 billion annually to the regional economy.