An Inconvenient Truth about Boeing and STLCC
By Vienna I. Austin
Author’s Note: A significantly shortened version of this article was first published in The Forum Newspaper, the official campus newspaper of St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley, available here. This is an updated version, written by the author of the original in the spirit of its first draft.
A technical education program at STLCC, dubbed the Boeing Pre-Employment Training program, promises graduates an interview at Boeing, one of the largest employers in the St. Louis region—and one of the largest weapons manufacturers in the world.
According to STLCC Chancellor Jeff Pittman, 1,795 students have completed one of the program’s two tracks since it was introduced in 2007. Though the program does not guarantee employment at Boeing, 1,420 of those students have been hired at the aerospace giant after graduating, a nearly 80% placement rate.
The Boeing Pre-Employment Training program is offered to students at no cost as a result of funding from Boeing St. Louis, posing an alluring offer. The program will soon move to the newly-open Advanced Manufacturing Center on the Florissant Valley campus, a 96,000 square-foot complex of glass and steel that was completed in early 2025 at a cost of $51.8 million. The Boeing program’s two tracks, which prospective students choose between when applying, each teach a separate trade vital to the manufacturing of modern aircraft: composites technology and sheet metal assembly.
Program graduates who are placed in jobs at Boeing will go on to work at Boeing manufacturing facilities in the Greater St. Louis area, particularly in North County. So, what does Boeing manufacture in St. Louis? Not passenger planes, but warplanes and weapons.
Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) was headquartered in Berkeley less than four miles from the Florissant Valley campus until 2017, and the corporation’s defense arm is still a preeminent player in the local economy. According to the St. Louis Business Journal, as of March 2024, BDS employed 16,681 workers in the St. Louis area, making it the region’s fourth largest employer. At its facility in North County near St. Louis Lambert International Airport, Boeing produces the F-15 lineage. Boeing’s facility in St. Charles builds Small Diameter Bombs and kits that turn unguided “dumb” bombs into precision-guided “smart” bombs, called Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs).
The F-15 and its variants are operated by a variety of militaries around the world, including the United States, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. In November 2024, The Israeli government announced a plan to buy 25 new F-15IA fighter jets for a total of $5.2 billion. The aircraft will be built in St. Louis, assembled in Boeing’s nearby Berkeley complex. Deliveries of the warplanes will begin in 2031.
Israel utilizes F-15 fighter jets extensively in its air force, including in its ongoing military occupation of the densely-populated Gaza Strip. The nation’s actions in Gaza have killed over 60,000 people, mainly children, women, and civilian men, according to data from Gaza’s Ministry of Health. An August 1, 2025 report from the UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for providing relief and humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees, stated, “at least 1.9 million people—or about 90 per cent of the population—across the Gaza Strip have been displaced during the war. Many have been displaced repeatedly, some 10 times or more.” Amid a renewed siege imposed by the State of Israel on Gaza, much of the population has lost adequate access to food, clean water, medical supplies, and fuel. The same report warned that “the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”
On March 21, 2025, months after the Israeli government’s announcement of the F-15IA contract, The Trump administration announced that Boeing had been awarded a contract by the United States Air Force to build their next-generation fighter jet, dubbed the F-47, which will be built at a brand new facility in North County. Per Jeff Pittman, “the engineering and manufacturing development contract for the F-47 fighter jet will focus on a few planes’ engineering and initial production efforts. The larger-volume production will be awarded in a later contract.” The new facility where the F-47 will be built is currently under construction off of I-170, adjacent to its existing campus at the airport. Construction on the site began in 2023, with an expected completion date of 2026 at an estimated cost of $1.8 billion.
When asked whether it was likely that Boeing Pre-Employment Training program graduates who have gotten jobs at Boeing have worked on the F-15 in the past and whether it is likely that students will work on the F-15 or F-47 in the future, Chancellor Pittman wrote in response, “Boeing determines the placement of its employees on specific production lines.” He opted to not speculate on whether STLCC students have worked or will work on either aircraft platform.
Jeff Pittman defended the Boeing Pre-Employment Training program as well as the importance of Boeing and its defense division to the local economy, calling them a “trusted partner,” among other things. In response to questions about ethical conflicts stemming from the program training and supplying workers to support Boeing’s weapons sales, the chancellor said, “While it’s understandable that some may have concerns about encouraging careers in the defense contracting industry, this field is very important for our national security and for developing new technologies. Boeing is a major employer in the St. Louis region, and thousands of people benefit by earning excellent wages to support their families. This, in turn, boosts the regional economy.” He added, “In the end, promoting careers in defense contracting is about building a skilled workforce that can tackle modern challenges while maintaining high standards of integrity and responsibility.”
Israel is currently facing a charge of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip. Numerous humanitarian and human rights watchdog groups have published reports accusing the nation of perpetrating a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Doctors without Borders. The groups cite Israel’s indiscriminate bombing campaigns that have killed scores of civilians and reduced much of the Gaza Strip to rubble, their denial of basic needs to the Palestinian people—including cutting electricity and water—and various other violations of international law. In one instance documented by Amnesty International and published Dec. 5, 2023, the rights group found that Israel had used US-made and Boeing-manufactured JDAMs, the exact kind produced in St. Charles, to target two family homes full of civilians, killing 43 people, including a 17-month-old girl.
On the prospect that STLCC students—including those who may be considering applying to the Boeing Pre-Employment Training program—may be concerned about the program’s relationship with Boeing’s defense division, Chancellor Pittman said, “Like any career path, each student must make a personal decision and ensure it aligns with their societal values.”
To many in St. Louis, and to higher-ups at STLCC, Boeing represents good money and stable jobs for the people and economy of our region. However, in Gaza, Boeing represents death—bombs being rained on hundreds of thousands of starving, sheltering civilians in a wasteland that they helped create. The simple, feel-good promises sold to STLCC students at a steep discount don’t tell the full story, conveniently omitting the inconvenient truth about Boeing: Supposedly one of St. Louis’ crown jewels, they have turned our city into a machine of for-profit destruction.
Vienna I. Austin is a student journalist at the University of Missouri. Born and raised in North County, she served as the student editor of The Forum Newspaper, the official campus newspaper of STLCC – Florissant Valley, for two years.
