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Loss of 2,800 personnel, perhaps 2,000 civilian jobs
By SAM BISHOP
News-Miner Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON—The Department of Defense recommended Friday that the Air Force move 2,800 personnel and all its A-10 and F-16 fighter aircraft out of Eielson Air Force Base during the next five years.
The change would likely eliminate another 320 direct civilian positions and 1,770 indirect positions, for a total loss of 4,700 jobs in the Fairbanks area.
That would represent about 8.6 percent of the region’s 54,500 jobs, the department estimated.
Eielson would be left with an Alaska Air National Guard wing, which currently employs about 580 personnel supporting eight KC-135R refueling aircraft. About half the guard personnel are full-time.
The base would also continue to support various military exercises such as Cope Thunder.
The department’s recommendation is part of a nationwide base closing and realignment process launched by Congress in 2002. The department’s suggestions now go to a nine-member commission. In September, the commission will forward a final plan to President Bush, who will have two weeks to accept or reject it. If he accepts the plan, Congress will have 45 days to reject it. Otherwise, it goes into effect.
The Defense Department also recommended removing several dozen fighter aircraft from Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, an action that would eliminate about 1,500 military positions.
Finally, the department suggested moving Kulis Air National Guard operations to Elmendorf and consolidating some Elmendorf operations with the nearby Fort Richardson.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Friday in Washington, D.C., that he was surprised by some of the proposed cuts.
However, Alaska’s overall military population would recover from the reductions even if they are approved, he said.
The proposals announced Friday only reflect changes developed for the base closing and realignment process, Stevens said. The military already plans to move personnel to Alaska from overseas and to bring new transport and fighter planes to Alaska, he said.
In fact, some of the proposals announced Friday are to make room for that “augmentation,” Stevens said. For example, Elmendorf should receive a few dozen new F-22 fighters starting in 2007 and eight new C-17 transport planes starting in 2008. An airborne brigade is coming to Fort Richardson, he said. At Fort Wainwright, adjacent to Fairbanks, three new aviation companies with about 150 personnel from Korea are to arrive by mid-June.
“In the long run, the only real disappointment is Eielson,” Stevens said.
Stevens said he doesn’t know of any plans that would offset the proposed personnel and equipment losses at the base, located about 30 miles southeast of Fairbanks.
Stevens said he would tell the commission that removing the fighters from Eielson and Elmendorf is unwise.
“It was worse than I anticipated in terms of fighters,” he said of the Defense Department’s recommendation.
The A-10s are stationed in Alaska to provide backup on the Korean Peninsula if war occurs there, he said. In addition, removal of nearly all fighters from Alaska “would leave our area without protection,” he said.
The Defense Department said Eielson has a high military value because it is near “valuable air space and ranges.”
“Eielson is, however, an expensive base to operate and improve,” according to justifications released with the recommendations.
“The Air Force recommends realigning Eielson, but keeping the base open in a `warm’ status using the resident Air National Guard units and a portion of the infrastructure to continue operating the base for USAF/joint/combined exercises,” the document states.
The 354th Fighter Wing has 18 F-16s at Eielson. They would be sent to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The wing’s A-10 jets would be split up, with 12 going to Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, three to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and three to “backup inventory” at an unspecified location.
The military expects to save about $2.78 billion over 20 years by moving the aircraft and personnel out of Eielson and making related changes at Moody and Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. The one-time cost of the changes would be $141 million, the report said.
Representatives from Eielson were not immediately available to comment on the plan.
Maj. Mike Haller, spokesman for the Alaska Air National Guard in Anchorage, said the state administration opposes the proposed reductions at Eielson.
“Such losses would be staggering for the Interior,” he said.
Eielson is important from a military standpoint, he said. The Korean Peninsula remains a volatile place, he said. “So the need to have bases that are capable and ready in Alaska is significant,” he said.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in a news release that the Eielson changes would be “a huge blow.” It would affect not just tax revenues and local businesses but also schools, churches and community services, she said.
“There is still a long way to go in the BRAC process,” she said. “The Base Realignment and Closure Commission must still conduct hearings and visit each facility...I am confident that the commission will recognize the strategic importance of Alaskaís bases to our national security.î
Stevens said commissions in the past four rounds of base closings generally have trimmed the closures recommended by the Defense Department, even while trying to maintain the dollar savings.
The situation is different this time because the military is undergoing a worldwide realignment at the same time as the domestic realignment, he said.
The only proposed change at Fort Wainwright, which has about 4,750 military personnel, would move the headquarters of the Cold Regions Test Center back to Fort Greely. The move would affect about five positions, said Lt. Col. George Bond, the center’s commander.
The test center headquarters moved to Wainwright after the last round of base closings, in 1995, when the commission decided to all but close Greely. Since then, the base has been resurrected as a national missile defense interceptor site.
Fort Richardson, with 3,300 soldiers, was on an initial BRAC closure list produced by the commission in 1991. However, the commission voted in June of that year not to put it on the final list.
Richardson appeared on an alleged Defense Department closure list that circulated on the Internet during the past year.
“That was a bogus list,” said Chuck Canterbury, Army spokesman at Fort Richardson.
Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at (202) 662-8721 or sbishop@newsminer.com.
Eielson reduction would hit Fairbanks economy
By DAN JOLING, The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE—A loss of most personnel at Eielson Air Force Base would have a major effect on the economy of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, an economist for the state Department of Labor said.
A Pentagon closure and realignment list released Friday indicated that Eielson would lose its fighter squadrons, including airmen who fly F-16s Fighting Falcons and A/OA-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft.
The loss of the fighter squadrons would leave Eielson with just one flying wing, the 168th air refueling wing, a National Guard unit. The Air National Guard flies KC-135s.
Downsizings must be approved or modified by a federal base closing commission by Sept. 8, and then agreed to by Congress and President Bush, a process that could take six months.
The Pentagon lists Eielson’s loss under the realignment plan at 2,821 military and 319 civilian jobs.
A Fairbanks Community Research publication listed Eielson’s military work force at 2,890 for the fourth quarter of 2004, said Brigitta Windisch-Cole, a state Department of Labor economist.
The loss of all jobs listed in the realignment would not leave the base with much, she said.
“That’s almost a near closure of that base,” Windisch-Cole said. “That would have a significant impact.”
The report listed an Eielson Air Force population, with dependents, of 6,484. That’s about 7.6 percent of the borough population.
“That would definitely have an impact on the Fairbanks economy,” Windisch-Cole said.
What might soften the impact is the Army’s plan to locate a Stryker brigade at nearby Fort Wainwright, she said. Some of the Stryker brigade has been located temporarily at Fort Richardson in Anchorage.
Once deployments are completed next year, the Army population at Fort Wainwright is expected to increase by about 1,500 soldiers.
Those soldiers, however, tend to be younger than the Air Force population, with fewer dependents, Windisch-Cole said.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the Eielson changes would effect more than the economy.
“The estimated loss of approximately 4,700 jobs, direct and indirect, in the Fairbanks area alone would be a huge blow to that community’s economic and social well-being not just from tax revenue or a local business standpoint, but also the number of families that would be leaving, impacting schools, churches, and community services,” she said.
She said she was confident that the Base Realignment and Closure Commission will recognize the strategic importance of Alaska’s bases to national security.
U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said he would protest the Eielson changes, given that the military has reduced forces in Korea and Eielson’s first line of duty was to reinforce those units.
Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker said the borough will deal with the potential loss of jobs in a methodical manner.
“It’s clear that it’s the first step in a process and it’s a multiyear process,” said Whitaker. “There is probably some room for alteration. That alteration will be in the hands of a very powerful congressional delegation.”
He said attempts will be made to mitigate the effects at the local, state and national levels. The potential economic damage puts emphasis on the need to push for a natural gas line from the North Slope of Alaska and other local development efforts.
“We’ll deal with this,” he said.
Stevens said the closure and realignment list did not reflect ongoing force realignments that will positively effect Alaska.
Among them: eight C-17s beginning to arrive in Alaska in 2008; 48 F-22s expected to begin arriving in Alaska in 2007; additional Cope Thunder exercises planned for Eielson Air Force Base; the transition of the Airborne Battalion at Fort Richardson to an Airborne Brigade; and additional aviation units from Korea being moved to Fort Wainwright.