NASIC job loss worries officials

Alabama legislators want intelligence jobs; local leaders say move would be a setback.

A request by Alabama legislators to move jobs from the National Air and Space Intelligence Center to a similar military analysis center in Alabama worries officials here, in part because intelligence work is seen as a growing source of jobs.

A career pipeline is already functioning in the Dayton area, led by the Beavercreek-based Advanced Technical Intelligence Center, to train and graduate new generations of intelligence analysts for jobs at NASIC, located on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and its support contractors.

ATIC, a nonprofit organization that has partnered with more than 60 universities, companies and government organizations, also provides continuing education training to new employees of NASIC, where about 3,100 people work.

“Intelligence is an area of great growth. Anytime we’re looking at transferring a number of jobs out of Dayton, we’re looking at not only the current occupants, but the prospect of future growth,” said Michael Gessel, a vice president of the Dayton Development Coalition, which helped form ATIC in 2006.

ATIC helps obtain security clearances for its graduates, who also can qualify for intelligence jobs in Washington, D.C., other parts of the country or overseas war zones. But ATIC focuses on trying to place its graduates in Dayton-area jobs, said Hugh Bolton, its chief executive officer.

Retirements or pending retirements, rapid technological changes and a continuing need for intelligence analysts with backgrounds in science, mathematics and foreign languages are fueling the need for new hires, Bolton said Friday.

If NASIC jobs were relocated to Alabama, it would be a setback for the Dayton region, he said.

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