Base Closure list due soon
Since 05-10-05
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Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 7:51 AM
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Subject: Closure list due soon
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/05/10/100loc_bases001.cfm
Closure list due soon
Local officials are optimistic Navy bases in Everett and Oak Harbor will be
spared.
By Brian Kelly
Herald Writer
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
With the Pentagon's list of must-close military bases expected to come out later
this week, local leaders are confident they've made the best case possible for
keeping Naval Station Everett open. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is
expected to announce Friday which military bases will close as the country tones
its military muscle to handle future threats to national security. Called the
base realignment and closure process, this round is the first since 1995 and the
fifth since the first one in 1988.Navy supporters and government officials have
been working to keep Naval Station Everett off this year's list.
A similar effort is under way in Oak Harbor to keep Whidbey Island Naval Air
Station intact. "We are very much in a wait-and-see mode," Everett Mayor Ray
Stephanson said. "And I remain optimistic that our base will remain open.
I feel very good about the case we've made." Naval Station Everett opened more
than a decade ago and is now homeport for the aircraft carrier USS Abraham
Lincoln, as well as guided-missile frigates and destroyers.
It's also home to two Coast Guard ships. Local leaders have made repeated trips
to the nation's capital in recent years to talk with elected leaders and
Pentagon officials about base closures. Gov. Christine Gregoire and members of
Washington's Congressional delegation also sent a special report to the base
closure commission late last month that detailed the strategic value of the
state's military installations. The report stresses that Washington's bases
comprise the best staging ground for military missions in the Asia-Pacific
region, and military forces here can be mobilized faster than those from other
areas.
The Pacific Northwest also has superior training areas and some of the newest
and most-modern facilities. Gregoire is visiting Navy supporters in Oak Harbor
today to talk about base-closure issues after a tour of Whidbey Island Naval Air
Station. Here in Everett, keeping Naval Station Everett open means preserving a
core piece of the county's economy. With approximately 6,300 civilian and
military employees, the Navy base is the county's second-largest employer. Their
earnings pumped an estimated $431 million into Snohomish County's economy in
2003.Still, the economic value of Naval Station Everett won't be what keeps it
open.
In previous closure rounds, few bases were kept off the closure list because of
the impact to local economies, according to a report issued last week by the
Government Accountability Office. The Pentagon has been very clear that military
value is critical, said U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash. Larsen serves on
the House Armed Services Committee. Pressing that case for strategic value is a
little like fly-fishing, he said. "You have to act like the bait and think like
the fish," Larsen said. "What is the Pentagon going to look at when it makes its
recommendations, and then try to craft the argument that fits how that big fish
is thinking. "Everett and Whidbey both have done a great job of answering those
kinds of questions on military value," Larsen said. Supporters of Naval Station
Everett say it surpasses the criteria for staying open.
Naval Station Everett is the Navy's newest homeport with the country's fastest
access to deep water. Access isn't limited by the tides, and dredging isn't
needed, either. The installation is the most environmentally friendly for
carrier installations, and Naval Station Everett has room to take on more ships
and sailors. Beyond the strategic value of Naval Station Everett and other
military installations in the Puget Sound region, some are seeing other reasons
for optimism. Rumsfeld told reporters last week that this base-closure round
won't be as extensive as earlier thought.
Previously, defense officials had said that up to 25 percent of the nation's
military bases could be closed in this round. Rumsfeld said the coming
closures could be half that amount, according to an Associated Press report. The
reason: U.S. bases will be closed overseas, and assets from those installations
will be reassigned to bases at home. Larsen said there are other factors that
may help Everett and Oak Harbor. The Navy was hit hard in earlier rounds, which
may mean Navy cuts could be less this time. Also different is a higher focus on
homeland defense, which makes Naval Station Everett and other facilities more
critical given their location in the northwest corner of the country.
And lastly, Larsen said, military installations here can help with the
challenging efforts to recruit and retain people in uniform. "You want to have a
place that provides a quality of life that keeps people coming back. In the
Pacific Northwest, we can offer that," Larsen said. Even after Rumsfeld releases
his list, work will continue to keep local installations from closure. "Most
people think a marathon is 26.2 miles long," Larsen said. "When the list comes
out, we've only hit mile 26 on this."
Stephanson added: "I think it really continues beyond the president making his
final up-or-down decision.
"I think we live in the world where base closures and adjustments are going to
continue for the foreseeable future," he said.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or
kelly@heraldnet.com .
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)