KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The adjutant general of the Kansas National Guard, Gov. Laura Kelly and three members of the state’s congressional delegation Thursday celebrated renovation of an armory serving troops since 1956 during military conflict, peacekeeping operations and natural disasters.
Brig. Gen. Paul Schneider, adjutant general of the Kansas Guard, said airmen and soldiers called upon to perform federal missions, such as the ongoing war with Iran or other deployments throughout the world, had departed from facilities such as the Kansas Readiness Center in Kansas City, Kansas.
“I’d like to ask that you keep the Kansas National Guard soldiers of the 130th Field Artillery Brigade (and) the airmen of the 190th Air Refueling Wing supporting operation ‘Epic Fury’ in the U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility in your thoughts and prayers,” he said.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, U.S. Rep. Derek Schmidt and Kelly also urged the audience at the rededication ceremony for the armory to keep Kansas Guard troops in mind. The 190th deployed with air refueling tankers in early March, while the 130th has been in the Middle East since last summer.
“I’ll add my voice to all that’s been said,” said Schmidt, the 2nd District Republican. “Thanks, obviously, to those Kansans and others who are serving overseas now. Also, for the families here at home, who have been keeping the home fire burning, and to their employers and friends who are waiting for them to come home, we are grateful.”
The Readiness Center in Kansas City was temporarily closed in 2023 because of water damage. The decision was made to retain the building through a remodeling project that relied on $4.9 million in federal funding and $1.9 million in state aid.
“Our armories were designed for a simple but powerful idea,” Schneider said. “The National Guard should be rooted into communities. This building was built to be more than a place to store equipment and to drill on weekends. It was built to be a community armory, a civil support hub — a place where soldiers train, where neighbors gather.”
The event highlighted the STARBASE program delivering hands-on instruction to Kansas fifth graders in science, technology, engineering, design and math in classrooms at the armory in the Kansas City, Kansas, and other Kansas Guard facilities in Manhattan, Salina, Topeka and Wichita.
The U.S. Department of Defense program worked to reach underserved communities and to provide students with mentorship from uniformed service members. The program has involved 132,000 Kansas students since 1993. The list of students grows by about 8,000 each year at no cost to school districts.
“It’s really a program that I fell in love with the first time I visited,” said Marshall, a Republican. “Learning how to measure things, how to do an experiment, learning the scientific process. But some people learn better by putting their hands on it rather than reading it from a book.”
Davids, the 3rd District Democrat, said programs like STARBASE provided students a head start on opening doors to careers in aviation, cybersecurity, engineering and public service.
“These programs don’t just prepare kids for their futures,” she said. “They strengthen our local economy by building a pipeline of talent that will attract businesses, create good-paying jobs and keep Kansas competitive. I’m proud to support this bipartisan program that reaches students from all backgrounds, ensuring that opportunity is never limited by zip code.”
In 2025, STARBASE faced funding cuts driven by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in the administration of President Donald Trump. Federal funding was restored through a bipartisan effort in Congress that involved members of the Kansas delegation.
This story previously appeared in the Kansas Reflector.
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