BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ U.S. Air Force officials came to Boise last
week to scrutinize facilities at Gowen Field for an Italian-made
military cargo plane that could be stationed here.

Col. Tim Marsano, an Idaho National Guard spokesman, says the
team surveying beddowns for an operational mission of the C-27J
Spartan was pleased with what it saw.

He says officials thought Gowen, with its vacant hangar space,
was ``a good facility.''

Idaho learned in July neither Mountain Home Air Force Base nor
Gowen were among the first sites to win the F-35 Joint Strike
Fighter, but the Air Force dangled the Spartan as a consolation
prize.

Gowen Field and a facility in Great Falls, Mont. could get the
planes, which can land on dirt runways in places like Afghanistan.

The Air Force could decide in October if Idaho will get four
planes.


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