A historic collaboration between Foley and the U.S. Navy, spanning over 80 years, is set to expand with a recent agreement for the city to provide services at Barin Field.

The Foley City Council greenlit a letter of intent, solidifying the cooperative arrangement with the Navy's Whiting Field in Pensacola. City Administrator Mike Thompson clarified that the proposal permits Foley to undertake tasks at Barin Field, but clarified that it doesn't bind the city to specific duties.

“What we’re doing is entering into an arrangement with Whiting Field that would allow the city to perform some work that they might need to have done over at Barin Field,” Thompson said.. “This is something that they’ve tested around the country with local governmental agencies, either municipalities or counties where they seek out a local government agency to try to manage some of the services that they might need over there.”

Randy Roy, naval operational liaison officer with Whiting Field, highlighted the potential cost benefits for the Navy through such agreements. Roy noted that local governments often offer resources at more economical rates than the Navy for basic services like road maintenance and repairs.

“You’re talking about basic things that we normally pay for, roads, maybe some repairs, things that you typically have within your bandwidth which you already support,” Roy said. “It’s whether or not those things come to fruition. There’s no dollars that are coming from your coffers to go to this.”

Roy acknowledged Foley and South Alabama's longstanding tradition of supporting the Navy. Barin Field has been a training site for Navy aviators since the facility opened as a base in 1942. Today, the field is not an active base, but is still used for Whiting Field training flights.

“The folks that live here in this area support the Navy,” Roy said. “I don’t think you get enough credit from the United States of America. We talk to your senior leadership a lot about the importance of what this area does for the United States Navy and national defense strategy.”

Highlighting Foley's recent recognition as an American World War II Heritage City by the National Park Service, Roy emphasized the city's enduring commitment to the military and national defense.

Roy explained the crucial role of locations like Barin Field in military aviation training.

“The ability to do what we do at Whiting Field cannot be done without Alabama,” he said. “There are six of our airfields located in Alabama that we fly at. We’ve got two over here, Barin Field and Summerdale. We have others on the other side of Alabama.”

He revealed that 60% of Navy and Marine Corps pilots undergo training over Alabama, and all Naval helicopter pilots train in the region.

“Just to mention how busy that is, if you were to take all of the aircraft that fly in the United States Navy on an annual basis, 18% of it is over these skies, here and in Florida,” he said. “If you put that number on there, it’s about 1.3 million operations. Atlanta only does about 700,000 to 800,000 operations a year.”

Roy expressed gratitude on behalf of the base and emphasized that the nationwide footprint of Navy operations wouldn't be sustainable without Foley's government and the support shown by its citizens.

“The metric that you guys meet to allow us to do that and to have the flexibility and support that you guys have always given us is absolutely not expanded enough and not given to you enough credit so I just want to say that on behalf of the skipper and the base,” Roy said. “Literally, the footprint that you see across the nation cannot be supported without you guys here in Alabama.”

Council President Wayne Trawick praised the successful partnership between Foley and the Navy.

“The Navy is super to work with,” Trawick said. “They have been a good partner with whatever has come up. They’ve helped us on a lot of occasions.”