DoD plans would trigger a
'government-induced recession'
Since 07-12-05
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Subject: DoD plans would trigger a 'government-induced recession'
Baldacci: DoD plans would
trigger a 'government-induced recession'
Christopher_Cousins@TimesRecord.Com
07/07/2005
BOSTON — The Pentagon's plan to close two Maine military facilities and downsize
Brunswick Naval Air Station would trigger a catastrophic government-induced
recession in Maine and New Hampshire, Gov. John Baldacci told a presidentially
appointed commission in Boston on Wednesday.
The closures and realignment proposed under the 2005 Base Realignment and
Closure process would affect Maine as much or more than any state in the nation
and recovery would take years, he said.
"The closure of any single installation would be painful; the closure of three
together will be felt throughout the Maine economy for years to come," said
Baldacci during his testimony. "It will be nothing short of a catastrophe."
Baldacci's comments came at the end of a long day of testimony by officials from
Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The day was
full of emotional ups and downs, from impassioned remarks about the impacts
closures would have on workers and communities to tedious reviews of data about
the minutiae of running military installations.
During the hearings on behalf of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, thousands of people
— most of them with matching yellow shirts — filed into the Boston Convention
and Exhibition Center, forcing organizers to add more seating in the gigantic,
arched-roof conference hall. All the presentations from states where base
closures or realignments will have a negative effect attacked the Pentagon's
reasoning in developing its realignment and closure list, specifically outlining
how a set of eight criteria was not followed, as required by Congress.
Defending BNAS
Following New Hampshire's defense of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Maine's
presentation came last — first addressing Brunswick Naval Air Station, then
Limestone. The case for Brunswick was made by Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan
Collins, both R-Maine, Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, Gov. John Baldacci and retired
Navy Adm. Harry Rich, a member of the local task force that was formed to
advocate for BNAS during the base realignment and closure process.
"Substantial deviations" was the phrase of the day as Maine's delegation tried
to illustrate the gap between the Pentagon's proposed BRAC list and the criteria
that were supposed to be used in developing that list.
For Brunswick, the presenters focused on what was characterized as flawed data
that was used by the Pentagon in calculating savings to the Navy if all of the
aircraft and 85 percent of the active-duty military personnel at BNAS are moved
to Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla.
The presentations, which were given under oath, were somber in nature and
focused on data — in some ways a departure from the caustic attacks the
congressional delegation has levied at the Pentagon in less formal settings.
In essence, the presenters said that the Pentagon's number-crunching either
misrepresented or ignored reality in everything from construction that would be
needed at Jacksonville to how much it would cost for the Navy's P-3 Orion
aircraft to patrol the Northeast while based in Florida.
But the most important argument for BNAS is its strategic military value, which
is heavily weighted among the eight BRAC criteria.
"A strategy to protect our extensive coastal borders is key to homeland defense,
and, as you know, that strategy is just evolving," said retired Adm. Harry Rich.
"A fully capable, operational air station strategically located in the Northeast
with permanently assigned long-range maritime patrol aircraft is absolutely
critical to success."
Rich, whose long Navy career put him in a position to deliver many important
speeches, said after the presentation that nothing he's ever done was as
important as what he did Wednesday.
"It was more pressure than anything I've ever done before," he said. "Nobody's
livelihood ever depended on my success."
Collins also spoke about Brunswick Naval Air Station's military value.
"This location (in the Northeast) makes Brunswick a vital link in our national
defense posture and critical for surveillance of ships coming from Europe, the
Mediterranean and the Middle East," she said. "Its proximity to major population
centers, combined with its ability to support every aircraft in the Department
of Defense's inventory, makes BNAS essential across the full range of homeland
defense operations and contingencies. By any fair and complete assessment,
Brunswick Naval Air Station more than measures up."
Snowe focused on the Pentagon's estimates of cost savings, unraveling them one
by one with claims that they were based on faulty or missing data. Her points
ranged from the fact that Jacksonville would have to spend millions to
accommodate the additional aircraft and personnel from BNAS to the increased
cost for the P-3 Orion to fly from Jacksonville to points north. It costs about
$8,000 per flight hour to fly a P-3, which would add $55,000 to the cost of a
flight to the Navy base in Sigonella, Italy, for example.
Snowe concluded that the Pentagon's estimate of 20-year savings of $238.8
million is more than four times higher than her estimate of $56.5 million.
"It is clear that the Navy's sole reason for recommending the realignment of
BNAS — cost savings — is not supportable by the facts," she said.
BRAC Commission Chairman Anthony Principi said after the hearings that the
presentations were comprehensive and compelling, but he didn't hint about what
the commission's action might be.
"It is clear to all of us that Maine is hit particularly hard by these
recommendations," he told reporters during a brief press conference. "What we
saw today makes the commission's job more difficult. No decisions have been
made."
The commission has until Sept. 8 to forward a revised list of closure and
realignment recommendations to President Bush.
ccousins@timesrecord.com
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)