Air Force to bid last farewell to DESC

Kettering to take ownership of former Building 45


DESC Timeline

1943-44: Constructed as the Dayton Signal Corps Supply Agency

1944-5: Workforce included more than 200 Italian prisoners of war

1945: Renamed 882nd Army Air Force Specialized Depot

1951: 116-acre facility expanded with purchase of 49 more acres to the east

1951: Renamed in memory of World War II flying ace Maj. Don S. Gentile

1952: Van Buren Township is incorporated as the City of Kettering

1962: Becomes the Defense Electronics Supply Center, one of five for the military.

1993: BRAC places Gentile on the base closure list. City of Kettering begins redevelopment for business.

1994: Building 45 houses Air Force’s Defense Finance and Accounting Service Center.

1996: DESC relocates to Columbus.

1997: Kettering Business Park opens.

2000: West branch of the Little Beaver Creek is dredged due to environmental concerns about contamination on the site.

2005: Groundwater monitoring shows cleanup goals reached at part of the site. The rest is cleared in 2011.

2005: The BRAC commission closes the DFAS center.

2013: Air Force turns over last building at the complex.

The U.S. Air Force’s exit from the sprawling former Defense Electronics Supply Center off Wilmington Pike will reach a ceremonial conclusion Monday when the keys to what was Building 45 are handed to the City of Kettering.

The military has not been a visible presence since 2005 at the 165-acre, 70-year-old complex, which also was known as the Gentile Air Force Station. It became the Kettering Business Park in 1997.

But the Air Force, which has leased the 200,000-square foot Building 45 to Kettering for $1 a year, retained ownership of one last structure until now.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. David Love, whose duties included command of the Air Force Material Command, said the building “was already turned over to Kettering, for most intents and purposes.”

The formality on Monday will mark the end of another chapter at a facility where a peak of almost 5,000 military and civilian personnel were employed in the 1970s. No money will change hands.

More than 1,800 private sector employees work in the business park, where major employers include a financial arm of the General Electric Co., the National Composite Center and the Kettering Municipal Court.

During World War II, shortly after the base was built on the site of a former commercial airfield and surrounding farmland, more than 200 Italian prisoners of war labored there.

At the time, the station included four large warehouses, along with administrative and support facilities. The mission was to procure, store, issue and salvage airborne radio and meteorological equipment and supplies.

Until recently, the Air Force still had 30 claims center personnel working in Building 45, which is marked only by the numerals 1050, for its address on Forrer Blvd., which leads into the business park from Wilmington. The structure is connected to the building that houses the municipal court and Kettering Fire Dept. headquarters.

“The city considers Building 45 a good opportunity, not a burden,” economic director Gregg Gorsuch said.

“There will be some carrying charges, but it’s in pretty good shape, he said.

The building has a new roof and recent HVAC work and is furnished. The city will look to lease it as Class A/B office space or find a party to buy it and lease it for business, Gorsuch added.

The transition “is the end of an era,” he said. “Following Sept. 11, 2001, the building no longer met Air Force security requirements. It’s too close to Wilmington Pike, for one thing.”

An AAMCO transmission shop, Heil Bros. Hardware and other businesses including Ritter’s Frozen Custard are just across Wilmington.

The building once housed the DESC/Gentile command and later the Defense Financial and Accounting Systems, which was moved to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 2005.

Assistant city manager Albert Fullenkamp, who oversaw the conversion from DESC to Kettering Business Park, said that process “has definitely been a success. Financially, it’s done fairly well. We did have to put some money into it. Federal grants helped with that.”

Fullenkamp there are still “a lot of former DESC employees in the community who remember what once was.”

When the pullout began in 1993, the payroll was $1.16 million per year and regional economic impact was estimated by the Air Force at more than $500 million. The City of Kettering received nearly $2 million in annual income tax revenue.

About the Author