Robins Air Force Base doesn't just distribute billions in salaries, it also awards billions of dollars to contractors across the country and right here in Georgia.
Air Force veteran and veteran contractor Michael Reynolds says his 25 employees wouldn't have jobs if not for Robins.
“It's extremely important, actually we wouldn't be in business, I would say 95 maybe 98 percent of our work is all related to Robins Air Force Base or the Air Force in general,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds works at Support Systems Associates Incorporated, just a few miles from the base.
The firm specializes in engineering and logistics services for a variety of aircraft worked on at Robins.
After 30 years in the Air Force, Reynolds started contract work in 2002.
He said the boost to local economies extends wider than firm employees like his.
“All the companies have other subsidiaries that are located outside the state, they come in and visit and they bring dollars in to the hotels and restaurants and just help the city grow all the way,” Reynolds said.
21st Century Partnership says the Base awarded more than $7 billion in contracts last year and $177 million of it stayed right here in Houston County.
The Base also works with more than 1,800 contract employees, like Michael Furman, who's site leader for Mantech International Cooperation on Base.
He said the availability of a contract job kept him in Central Georgia.
“I was retiring and looking forward to going back to my law practice in Louisiana, I was a reservist, mobilized reservist, and unfortunately Katrina came through and changed my plans. So it was done provincially, and the contract was available and that's what I took,” Furman said.
Furman spent 39 years in the Air Force and now oversees seven employees, just one of thousands of contractors working on Base and living in Central Georgia.
The Base awarded $440 million in contract dollars to firms here in the Peach State last year.