Laughlin air show, open house canceled Published Sept. 14, 2011 By 47th Flying Training Wing public affairs Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas -- Laughlin Air Force Base's leadership announced the decision today to cancel the base's air show and open house, known as Air Amistad 2011, that was scheduled for Oct. 15 and 16. "This wasn't an easy decision," said Col. Tom Murphy, 47th Flying Training Wing commander. "However, given budget constraints, we cannot in good conscience, host an expensive open house that doesn't fall within our mission priorities of graduating pilots and deploying Airmen." Laughlin has a more than $200 million dollar impact on the regional economy every year, according to the wing's Economic Impact Study. This decision is in keeping with Air Force leadership's direction for these tough economic times. "We need to make the hard choices now in order to ensure Laughlin has the resources to perform its mission and take care of its Airmen," Murphy said. Open houses aren't permanently off of the table, he said. "We want to have open houses in the future. We just know this isn't the best time right now." Laughlin's leadership strives to show off the people and base as much as possible, through community involvement and tours. "We try to support every tour request we can, with a focus on 6th graders and up," said Joel Langton, 47th FTW chief of public affairs. "Last year, we showed our base off to nearly 1,000 people in 60 tour groups." For more information about Laughlin tours, call 2nd Lt. Angela Martin at 830-298-5044.