Wake up, save Eielson (AK)

Across the nation, from the biggest states to some of the smallest communities, the cry of "Save Our Base" has been rolling in to Washington, D.C., as astute politicians and others try to keep their coveted military installations open while the next round of base closings proceeds.

Many have been at it for years, some much less so. But regardless of the length of their lobbying effort, their leaders in and out of government were keenly aware that the Base Realignment and Closure Commission was going back to work this year. Base supporters have spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours and have promised more as they try to convince the commission that this Army post or Navy shipyard or that Air Force base or Marine camp shouldn't be shuttered.

And then there's Alaska and Fairbanks, whose stunned officials learned Friday that Eielson Air Force Base is on the list to be all but closed, its aircraft and personnel sent elsewhere.

Alaska and Fairbanks appear to have done nothing to prepare for this possibility. That needs to change--and now.

Here's what other states were doing while Alaska was idle: North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley 16 months ago--16 months ago--gave his lieutenant governor the job of protecting the state's military installations in the 2005 round of base closings. With the military bringing $18.1 billion into the state's economy each year, the governor and others clearly recognized the need to play defense. So far, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue has made several lobbying trips to Washington, has worked with local governments to improve their own base-saving campaigns and has put together a package of military-friendly legislation.

Other states are equally as strident on behalf of their bases. In Illinois, retired military officers, politicians and public relations experts are part of the effort to not only save their bases but also expand them. Illinois has been lobbying since the 1995 round of shutdowns, with the cost of the lobbying effort to date expected to top $3 million. Michigan officials in March made their case with officials in the Defense Department and the Defense Logistics Agency.

In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue has traveled to the Pentagon to make the case for his state's bases. Georgia also has a top-flight Military Affairs Coordinating Committee that includes five retired generals or admirals and is led by two former U.S. senators--Sam Nunn, former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Mack Mattingly, former chairman of the Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee.

In Florida, former Defense Secretary William Cohen and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey are part of a $50,000-a-month consulting team working for the state. Massachusetts has a $410 million plan to develop bases and has hired a former BRAC chairman to be its lobbyist. In New York, Gov. George Pataki last month said the state expects to spend millions of dollars lobbying the government to keep all of the state's bases open. In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has hired President Clinton's former chief of staff to lead his state's military lobbying effort.

Leaders in Alaska and in Fairbanks, meanwhile, were led into complacency. They believed that powerful U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens would not permit the closing of any of the big four installations--Elmendorf and Eielson Air Force bases and Forts Richardson and Wainwright. They assumed the annual lofty pronouncements of visiting high-ranking military guests regarding Fairbanks' "strategic location" meant that the area's military installations were secure from closure.

While the process is far from finished, most of the installations the Defense Department recommends for closing or downsizing do meet their suggested fate. And that leads to a debate about the effectiveness of lobbying; the opinions vary. But if lobbying is to pay off, then it will come between now and the time the commission makes its final list and forwards it to the president and Congress.

Eielson is far too important to this community, and therefore to the state, for the announcement of its near-closing to be received without a fight. It is unacceptable to conclude, as Sen. Stevens did on Friday, that Eielson's closing is regrettable but acceptable given that Alaska as a whole has fared well overall when considering military additions of recent years. Since when is it acceptable for a community to lose thousands of people in one stroke?

Although Alaska and Fairbanks are terribly far behind in the lobbying wars, they should immediately open and adequately fund a campaign to save Eielson. The effort must be led by Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski, Rep. Don Young, Gov. Frank Murkowski, local mayors and legislators and the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce. The governor took a good first step on Friday in announcing the creation of a panel that will work to prepare for Eielson's shut down while also working to keep it open. The priority, though, should be on the latter.

Despite what effort may be mounted on Eielson's behalf, the work will be difficult--more so because nothing has been done so far. To drive that point home, here's a sobering statement from a consultant whose firm works for several military communities in the South and Midwest: "For any military community waiting to this stage to hire a lobbyist, it's too late."

THAT'S STUPID.

Just downright stupid.

In AK you have a state that is 100% pro-defense. You can’t get much more pro-defense than AK.

The bases/posts are huge and good (Some of the largest in the whole US-example Wainwright). Wainwright, Richardson, Eielson, Elmendorf are all fantastic instillations with good infrastructure. Look at the runway at Eielson! You can dam near land a C172 on the width of that runway. It’s an alternate for the Shuttle for a reason. The housing for soldiers ANYWHERE in Alaska is good. ANYWHERE in AK is better housing, gyms, hospitals etc than nearly ANYWHERE in Europe. Benning (Home of the infantry) isn't as nice as Wainwright.

We have HUGE impact areas where you can drop real big bombs and do real gun runs with A10s and fighters, day, night, Sundays or on Christmas if you feel like it........... If an A10/F16/15 wants to fly low-NOBODY CARES!

Actually we are not that far from many of the potential trouble spots (S. Korea for example).

AK is one of the last places we should withdraw forces. In my opinion (But I am biased I know), AK is a good location-pushed forward, pro-defense, with huge facilities and bases/posts, where the rules for training, impact areas etc are nearly without parallel, with a solid infrastructure, a state government which has always backed its military………. Really I don’t get it. AK was where we had missiles pointing at the USSR and where today we are emplacing interceptor missiles (At Greeley) to shoot down N. Korean or potentially future Chinese threat systems. Our DEW line and our missile early warning systems are based partially there. The Alyeska Pipeline is a strategic target and Saddam offered a multi-million dollar reward to blow it up (We pump ¼ of all the consumed US oil - about a million 44 gallon barrels per day). We used to have units (Army) dedicated to protecting it. While our population is small and many give us little thought, we are a rather good spot for our nations military.

Red6

Update

Voices on base closings

Friday's announcement of widespread military base closings and downsizings across the country has caused, as expected, outrage in the affected states and communities. Alaska and Fairbanks, which face the mothballing of Eielson Air Force Base, can readily be counted among those adamantly opposed.

In the days since the announcement by the Defense Department, editorial writers and commentators across the nation have been having their say. The Daily News-Miner will be publishing some of those writings, or excerpts of them, as they become available.

FROM THE VOICE OF THE (ANCHORAGE) TIMES--

We never expected the severity of the recommendations made Friday by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

We had looked for little or no reductions in military forces here or in the mission of the Army and Air Force units on duty in the 49th State. What happened was just the opposite. Alaska took it in the chops.

Worst hit was Eielson Air Force Base at Fairbanks. If the Rumsfeld plan holds through the entire process and is incorporated in the final report by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, Eielson basically will be history--at the cost of almost 4,700 jobs.

The effect could be devastating on the Fairbanks economy. Anchorage didn't escape unscathed, either. Not by a long shot, unfortunately.

Fort Richardson, the large Army post that has been a big factor in Anchorage's life since the days of World War II, will be "consolidated" with Elmendorf Air Force Base for installation management purposes, and its civilian personnel operations will be shipped to Arizona. Net loss: 286 jobs. Elmendorf could lose 24 of its F-15 and 21 of its F-15E aircraft, which would be a huge blow.

Meanwhile, Kulis National Guard Station at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport will be closed. Its airplanes and personnel will be moved to Elmendorf.

Stevens, it's safe to say, was shocked by the Rumsfeld plan. He said he would protest to the full BRAC panel, especially with respect to Eielson. "I think it is wrong to leave our area without fighter protection and it is wrong from a national security point of view. ..."

Both senators said there are still months to go before the cuts are finalized. But the shadows have now been cast, and the outlook is not good.

FROM THE ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS--

Alaska (4,619 net jobs lost) ranks behind only Connecticut (8,586), Maine (6,938) and District of Columbia (6,496) as the biggest losers in the military base closings proposed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Not until fall or winter will we know whether this proposal will go through. Until then, all will be watching to see whether U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens can mitigate the damage.

The Fairbanks area suffers most in the proposed plan. Eielson Air Force base would be almost entirely closed, keeping just a skeleton crew of 100 stationed there. Eielson now has an Air Force population, with dependents, of 6,484, about 7.6 percent of the Fairbanks North Star Borough's population. The hit would be offset next year by deployment of a Stryker Army brigade at nearby Fort Wainwright, but losses to the Interior economy still would be substantial.

The picture is better for Anchorage, though losses would be substantial. About 1,680 jobs would go with the closure of Kulis Air National Guard Base and realignments to Elmendorf and Fort Richardson. Rescue functions and perhaps four more C-130 aircraft would be transferred to Elmendorf.

But there may be compensating benefits. Kulis occupies valuable land south of Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Mayor Mark Begich, while issuing regrets over the announcement, had a healthy take on that: "If Kulis is eventually closed, that base is certainly prime property for expansion of Anchorage's international cargo operations, which already are among the world's busiest."

Military bases and operations have played a huge strategic and economic role in Alaska since the major buildups of World War II. That role surely will continue after this, the fifth round of base closures since 1988. Whether that role will be substantially diminished depends largely on Sen. Stevens--and he was already at work on his campaign the day the closings were announced.

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES--

We have yet to meet the senator or representative who liked the closing of a local military base. But lawmakers who care about getting the most out of America's half-trillion-dollar defense budget ought to be lining up behind the Pentagon's recommendation on Friday to close more than 30 major domestic bases and scores of smaller installations.

By closing and consolidating facilities it no longer requires, the Pentagon would free about $5 billion a year for the additional personnel and equipment it needs very badly. Frankly, we wish the list of closed facilities had been even longer, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had once indicated it would be.

The Pentagon avoided the political pain of closing even more domestic bases by choosing to cut back too drastically on its bases overseas, particularly in Europe. Many of those foreign bases benefit from host nation subsidies, so shifting those troops home will mean less potential savings. It also undermines military efficiency, since bases in places like Germany are closer to likely combat zones than those in Oklahoma or Kansas.

Still, the Pentagon deserves credit anytime it musters the courage to redirect money from areas that are politically popular but militarily redundant.

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'To keep Eielson open'

By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON--Fairbanks officials and business leaders are organizing to prevent removal of the fighter wing from Eielson Air Force Base.

Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker has asked for a special meeting of the assembly today to consider an emergency appropriation of $500,000 for a consulting team.

And the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce's military affairs committee will meet this morning to consider that group's next move.

The Department of Defense recommended Friday that about 2,800 Air Force personnel and 36 fighter aircraft at Eielson be moved to other locations by 2011. That move could cost the Fairbanks area more than 2,000 jobs, according to estimates.

"We're going to leave no rock unturned" in countering the department's proposal, Whitaker said Monday afternoon.

"To keep Eielson open--that's our goal," said Norm Phillips Jr., chamber board of directors chairman.

The Defense Department's recommendation went to a national base closing and realignment commission, which began meeting Monday. In September, the commission will give President Bush its own list of proposed military base closures and changes. He will either reject it or accept it. If accepted, Congress has 45 legislative days to reject it or it goes into effect.

The department, in justifications released Friday, said Eielson is expensive to operate and improve. Department estimates of Eielson's Air Force personnel numbers vary between 2,800 and 2,950, so it appears that the proposal would remove virtually all positions.

The Alaska Air National Guard's eight refueling tankers, supported by 580 full- and part-time personnel, would remain. Air Force training exercises would also continue at the base.

In addition to using borough tax money to mount a defense of the base, Whitaker has asked Fairbanks legislators to include another $500,000 in the state budget nearing completion in Juneau.

The money will buy the services of the most qualified consultants available, Whitaker said. He also wants the best legal and economic advice.

Asked if he thought that such hired consultants could add much to the effort, Whitaker said, "We do not have a choice. ... To do otherwise would be irresponsible."

Firms are already lining up to get the business, both Whitaker and Phillips said.

"We've gotten a few resumes and e-mails," Phillips said.

"We have a preferred group at this point," Whitaker said but declined to name it. "We have not received confirmation that they are available."

Phillips said he wasn't sure of the chamber's direction yet.

"We might look to hire someone who would keep the chamber in the loop with the various task forces that are set up," he said, noting he was expressing his own thoughts and not an official chamber view.

He said he wanted the chamber's effort to be "positive."

Dean Owen, a co-chairman of the chamber's military affairs committee, said he thinks the chamber needs to put together facts to sway the commission.

"I think we need to look at how we can present any positive information for Eielson," he said.

The Air Force also proposed to shrink its personnel and jet fighter force at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage.

The overall reduction to Alaska was surprising, given "this general mantra about being focused on the Pacific and wanting to be deployable," said John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, which maintains a comprehensive Web site on the U.S. military.

"Everybody I was talking with on Friday was surprised" about the proposed Alaska cuts, Pike said. "I don't think anybody saw that coming."

Whitaker estimated the department's plan would eliminate 3,117 jobs at Eielson. That includes 2,821 military jobs, a net 119 civilian jobs and 177 teaching and school administration jobs, he said.

"That's using our economic model, which we know to be very specific to the borough's economy," he said.

Whitaker noted the Fort Wainwright Army Post is expected to gain about 1,375 Stryker Brigade troops over the next 18 months.

"That balanced against 3,000 lost at Eielson is still a significant net loss for us," he said.

Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at (202) 662-8721 or sbishop@newsminer.com .

Update.

'Superb' airspace works against Eielson

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By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON--Top Air Force officers said Tuesday that military airspace in Alaska would be available for more training if Eielson Air Force Base's current fighter wing were split among bases in the Lower 48.

That justification for the proposed near-elimination of a resident Air Force presence on the base emerged in response to a question from Anthony Principi, chairman of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

Principi observed that Eielson was one of two bases and numerous smaller installations the Air Force has proposed to keep in "warm" status, meaning they would stay open but host few resident personnel.

"Why?" he asked. "It costs a lot of money to maintain Eielson, just to keep it warm."

Maj. Gen. Gary Heckman, assistant deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, said the Air Force took note of Alaska's "superb" airspace as it conducted the latest review of the nation's base structure.

Instead of adding more fighter squadrons, the Air Force reviewers decided that pulling out the existing fighter wing would free up more opportunities to take advantage of the airspace, Heckman said.

The Air Force in 1997 secured training rights in the sky over about 60,000 square miles of Alaska. The plan, which ended three years of sometimes contentious public debate, cut back the areas traditionally used by the military by about 10,000 square miles but permanently reserved the 60,000. Until then, the Air Force had to apply regularly to the Federal Aviation Administration for the withdrawals.

At the time of the permanent designations, Air Force officials said it would make Alaska an attractive place for Outside military crews to practice.

Now it appears the Air Force wants to significantly increase the use of that space, but at the expense of the resident base structure.

Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, said he expects the annual Cope Thunder training exercise, for example, would be able to accommodate more people and even operate all year if Eielson were realigned.

The proposed changes at Eielson "will allow us to take advantage of the magnificent ranges that exist up there," he told the base closure commission.

That argument for Eielson's transformation is found only by reading between the lines of the Defense Department report released Friday with its recommendations for closures and realignments nationwide.

"Eielson's military value is high because of its close proximity to valuable airspace and ranges," the summary states. "Eielson is, however, an expensive base to operate and improve (build). 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."

Twelve of Eielson's 18 A-10 jets would go to Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. There, they would support an innovative Army fighting unit based at nearby Fort Benning, Acting Secretary of the Air Force Michael Dominguez told the commission Tuesday.

Eielson's 18 F-16 jets would go to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. That base also has excellent airspace, Jumper said.

The Air Force is trying to enlarge the size of its fighter squadrons in this round of base adjustments, Jumper said. Putting more planes in one spot will reduce maintenance costs.

"You'll see the analysis, you'll see the deliberations," Jumper said.

Dominguez said the analysis is based on a "reasoned, thoughtful, quantifiable approach to military value."

"Military value is a function of an installation's inherent and organic characteristics," Dominguez said.

Those include weather, usable space and permanent infrastructure, he said. It is "not a function of the characteristics of the unit currently stationed at an installation."

The department established four criteria for determining the military value of bases:

* The mission capabilities and the impact on operational readiness of the total force.

* The land and facilities available.

* The ability to accommodate contingency, mobilization, surge and future total force requirements.

* The cost of operations and the manpower implications.

More detailed data justifying the military's recommendations are due to the commission by Friday, said Robert McCreary, commission spokesman.

The nine-member base closure commission began taking testimony Monday from Defense Department officials in a basement hearing room of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The commission has not established a schedule for visiting affected communities, McCreary said.

The law guiding this round of base reviews requires that at least two commissioners visit any base that is added to the Department of Defense's recommended list, McCreary said. Since Eielson is already on the department's list, that provision provides no guarantee that any members will visit.

Nevertheless, he said, "their plan is to get out there and see as many bases as possible."

He said he was "pretty confident" that any base proposed for major reductions would get a visit.

The commission must create its own list of recommendations and give them to President Bush by Sept. 8. Bush then has two weeks to either accept the list, ask the commission for revisions or reject it in its entirety. If he accepts it immediately or after revisions, Congress will have another 45 legislative days to accept or reject it, again without amendment.

Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at (202) 662-8721 or sbishop@newsminer.com .

Update,

State, borough allocate funds to fight closures

http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2875439,00.html

By DIANA CAMPBELL

and R.A. DILLON

, Staff Writers

Local and state government efforts have raised $1.5 million in an effort to save Eielson Air Force Base and other Alaska military installations from downsizing or closure by the Department of Defense.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly approved spending $500,000 to save Eielson while the state Senate approved giving $1 million to a statewide task force formed by Gov. Frank Murkowski to stem the loss of more than 4,800 military and civilian jobs statewide, with Eielson representing 2,800 lost personnel alone.

The money will be used to hire consultants, but the time to make a case for the 62-year-old base is short, said Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker.

"It is imperative to hire the best minds available," Whitaker said. "We're going to fight like hell."

Friday, the Department of Defense recommended closing 33 major bases and reconfiguring hundreds of others to save $48.8 billion. Eielson would lose the 354th Fighter Wing, along with 36 fighter aircraft to bases in the Lower 48 by 2011. All that will be left is the 168th Air Refueling Wing of the Alaska Air National Guard and smaller units.

Whitaker called a special meeting of the assembly Tuesday night for a $500,000 emergency appropriation to help save the base. All nine members of the assembly signed on as co-sponsors and approved the measure unanimously.

"We can't afford to sit around and wait," said Assemblywoman Bonnie Williams. She and other assembly members praised Whitaker's swift action in bringing the motion forward. "We're armed with a fair amount of information."

History has shown that only 15 percent of those bases that make the defense reduction list survive the cuts, Whitaker said. That's why hiring a consultant is important. The fight will be based on Eielson's--and Alaska's--strategic military location and its importance to the nation.

"We better not hang our whole hat on (economic impact) or we'll die on it," Williams said.

The second task of the borough's consultant is to look for ways to prepare the area if efforts to keep Eielson fail, Whitaker said. The borough could survive the hit if growth continues at 1.5 to 2.0 percent annually. But Fairbanks will still see paychecks disappear.

In addition to the borough's contribution, Senate Finance Co-Chairman Gary Wilken, R-Fairbanks, on Tuesday shoehorned $1 million into the Senate's capital budget for the governor's 15-member statewide task force. The Senate approved the appropriation as part of a supplemental spending bill and sent it to the House on Tuesday.

"It's a very serious request for a very serious problem," Wilken said. "We need funding to present our case on an expedited basis."

The Defense Department's recommendation was sent to a national base closing and realignment commission, which has until Sept. 8 to make its recommendations to President Bush. If Bush approves the recommendations, Congress has 45 legislative days to rule.

In a letter requesting support for the funding to the governor, Wilken estimated the realignment would cost the Fairbanks economy 4,700 jobs.

Whitaker said that the borough will work with the task force, and based on what Wilken has said, expects part of the state's $1 million will be spent on Fairbanks efforts.

Officials believe it will cost between $500,000 to $1.5 million to hire consultants and mount an adequate argument to the base closure and realignment commission. The money would be used to pay for consultants, financial analyses, public campaigning and travel expenses.

"The governor is extremely concerned about the effects of the Eielson realignment on the community of Fairbanks," said Becky Hultberg, the governor's spokeswoman. "The governor acted very quickly to address this, but we still need further analysis to know how much it's going to cost."

On behalf of the borough, Jim Dodson, owner of Dodson Development in Fairbanks, contacted a Washington, D.C. consulting firm specializing in military issues to see how much the lobbying effort would cost. He said $1.5 million was enough to pay consulting fees and other expenses associated with the effort to keep Alaska's bases at their current level.

"We're going to need help and we're going to need it quick," Dodson said. "The price tag for that type of work is a minimum of $500,000."

"The commission isn't interested in the economic affects of the realignment to Fairbanks," Dodson said. "They want to know how Eielson fits strategically into America's defense. We don't have those facts, but these people do."

The argument to keep the state's bases open and fully staffed would focus on homeland security and protection of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, Sen. Gene Therriault, R-North Pole, said. Alaska also had the only bases equipped for operations in the Arctic, he said.

Rep. Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, said he'd work to protect the funding from cuts in the House, but worried it may be too late to save the base.

"I'm just worried it's in the 11th hour," he said. "We should have been working on a preventative effort much earlier."

Diana Campbell can be reached at 459-7523 or dcampbell@newsminer.com . R.A. Dillon can be reached at 459-7503 or rdillon@newsminer.com .

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Heavyweight help

A second track in the defense of Eielson Air Force Base opened on Wednesday with the announcement that U.S. Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski have signed on as co-sponsors of legislation introduced that same day to freeze the Defense Department's base-closing process.

It is welcome news and follows the equally rapid response of local and state officials, who have arranged for $1.5 million to fight the near-shutdown of Eielson and to prepare for life afterward if that effort ultimately fails. The emphasis, though, has been placed on saving the base.

There isn't much time, either for the local effort or the effort in Washington.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission has until Sept. 8 to submit its final list of base closings and reductions to President Bush, who can ask for revisions before sending it to Congress, which cannot modify it but can reject it in its entirety. The Pentagon has recommended that the commission put Eielson on "warm" status, meaning the lights at the base would be on but that 2,821 military personnel and 319 civilian jobs would be gone.

The BRAC-delaying legislation introduced by Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and supported by Alaska's senators would put the entire base-closing process on hold until further study is completed and most troops return from Iraq. Additional studies could prove beneficial to Eielson, which military officials themselves have repeatedly stated sits in a strategic location.

Sen. Stevens has gone a step further in the defense of Eielson and displayed his considerable clout by appealing directly to BRAC Commission Chairman Anthony Principi and asking that the commission hold a hearing in Fairbanks "as soon as possible" to evaluate the decision to empty out Eielson.

The senator, in his Wednesday letter to Chairman Principi, noted the "high military value" of Eielson. He mentioned the base's extensive training ranges and the ability of aircraft stationed there to respond faster to European hot spots than units based on the East Coast can. He added that units based at Eielson can respond to Korea faster than those based in California.

Sen. Murkowski, in announcing her support of Sen. Thune's legislation, described Eielson as "strategically significant to the country."

Such arguments are precisely what the BRAC commission needs to hear and acknowledge.

With Alaska's two U.S. senators now publicly showing their efforts regarding Eielson, residents of this region should feel satisfied that a broad defense of the base, which is so important economically to this area, is under way--and in well less than a week

Update

BRAC delay angers senator

http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2902197,00.html

By R.A. DILLON

, Staff Writer

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski criticized the Department of Defense for delays in declassifying information needed to defend Eielson Air Force Base.

With time running out before base advocates must present their case to members of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, Murkowski said during a Thursday visit to Fairbanks that Pentagon officials weren't presenting all of the data in a timely manner.

"We're tasked with defending our position and we're being forced to do that without the backup information they used to make their recommendation," Murkowski said. "That is wrong and we have been on them from the beginning.

"We need to get all of the information from the Defense Department to make sure we can make the best defense of Eielson," Alaska's junior senator said Thursday during a visit to Fairbanks.

After an outcry by Congress, the Defense Department released background and analytical information Tuesday and said all the data supporting the recommendations should be available by Saturday, 10 days before members of the commission visit Fairbanks on June 15. The delay was attributed to efforts to weed out classified material.

"We're told it's under security review, but the Department of Defense had two years to do that," Murkowski said.

Since Tuesday, all of the data have been available to the commission and members of Congress and their staff with security clearance. Because the information remains classified, however, no one who views it can talk about it and local officials working to save Eielson cannot view the material.

"The problem is that some of the material will remain classified," Murkowski said. "We can look at it but we can't talk about it. That doesn't make a lot of sense."

Elliott Bundy, Murkowski's spokesman in Washington, said the office was focusing on analyzing the publicly available information. He said staff would "begin the process of going through the classified data once we know what the nonclassified looks like."

The Pentagon will set up a second reading room for the classified information on Capitol Hill next week.

"That should provide us with more access," he said.

Staff from Sen. Ted Stevens' office had not seen the classified data. Stevens spokeswoman Courtney Schikora Boone said the staff members with the necessary security clearances had been with the senator in Alaska.

By law, the Department of Defense was required to release all pertinent information related to its recommendations within a week of turning over its list to the commission. A Department of Defense spokesperson Thursday said the most useful information about the recommendations was released May 13. The additional material, including meeting minutes and analysis, will be of questionable value, she said.

Regardless of its importance, communities working to defend their bases should see all of the data, Murkowski said.

"They say it's not important. I just don't happen to believe it," she said. "How do we know we couldn't be making a better case to keep Eielson on full status until we see the data?"

Alaska's congressional delegation, along with other lawmakers, has twice used the threat of legislation delaying the BRAC process and threatening letters to push the Defense Department to release the information.

The Defense Department had proposed releasing all the information by May 31; a deadline it missed because of the sheer amount of data, the Defense Department spokeswoman said.

All declassified information is supposed to be posted on the Department of Defense and BRAC Web sites by Saturday.

The recommendation to include Eielson on the BRAC list came from the Air Force as part of an effort to consolidate its A-10 and F-16 aircraft at bases in the Lower 48. Under the plan, Eielson's 18 A-10s would be reassigned to bases in Louisiana and Georgia and 18 F-16s would be transferred to Nevada. The Air National Guard's air tanker and rescue crew would remain at Eielson, which would be partially maintained for future training exercises. Expected savings to the defense budget over 20 years are estimated at $2.8 billion.

Eielson advocates have three months before the nine-member commission must make its decision to accept or reject the Pentagon's choices.

Staff writer Sam Bishop contributed to this report. Staff writer R.A. Dillon can be reached at 459-7503 or rdillon@newsminer.com .

Update.

Eielson first on BRAC hearing list

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By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON--Alaska moved to the top of the batting order Friday among locations scheduled for regional hearings on Pentagon plans for the nation's military bases.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission on Friday canceled a hearing in Salt Lake City and put off a hearing in St. Louis because of delays in obtaining information from the Department of Defense.

That means the first regional hearing held by the commission will be June 15 in Fairbanks.

The Department of Defense, in a report to the commission released May 13, recommended eliminating most of the approximately 3,000 Air Force positions at Eielson Air Force Base, located about 25 miles southeast of Fairbanks.

Alaska and Fairbanks officials also have complained about the delay in obtaining information on the military's proposal. They say their ability to rebut the Air Force's justification of the realignment is hampered by their inability to see the underlying data.

A commission spokesman could not be reached Friday to say whether the commission had also considered delaying the hearing in Fairbanks.

Jim Dodson of Fairbanks, who heads the task forces working to defend Eielson's current functions, said his organizations haven't asked for a delay of the Fairbanks hearing "yet."

Dodson said a representative of the Washington, D.C., consulting firm hired by the task forces had planned to attend the first two hearings to see how they unfolded.

However, Dodson said the proposed base changes to be reviewed at those meetings are much different than those proposed for Eielson, so it was unclear how valuable the preview would have been.

"We'll never know that because we don't know what we missed," Dodson said.

Dodson and University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton joined Sen. Lisa Murkowski and her staff Thursday evening in a video conference with Air Force generals in Washington.

The generals told the Fairbanks contingent some of the information is still not available publicly.

"It's a little bit embarrassing on the part of the government," Dodson said.

In a news release Friday, commission Chairman Anthony Principi said the lack of information from the Defense Department prompted the cancellation and delay of the first two hearings.

"We felt the need to give the local communities the necessary time to fully review the material prior to the hearing," Principi said.

In place of the Salt Lake hearing, the states of Utah and Idaho will have the chance to participate in a regional hearing in Portland, Ore., on June 17, the commission said. Some members of the commission will also make an "extended" site visit in Utah on Monday.

However, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday that some defense advocates in Utah are satisfied with the Pentagon's recommendations. The net military and civilian job loss in Utah would be about 200.

"We don't have major issues with the DOD analysis and report that came out of (Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld's office," Utah Defense Alliance President Vickie McCall told the Tribune. "We accept it. We're going to take our lumps for the team and we're going to move on."

Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at (202) 662-8721 or sbishop@newsminer.com .

More;

Three BRAC members to attend Eielson hearing

http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~2909938,00.html

By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON--At least three members of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission will attend a June 15 regional hearing in Fairbanks, Sen. Ted Stevens' office confirmed Tuesday.

Commission Chairman Anthony Principi will be joined by commissioners Phil Coyle and Jim Hansen.

Stevens spokeswoman Courtney Schikora Boone said a fourth member may join the group. That commissioner's name was not available Tuesday afternoon.

The nine-member commission is pondering the merits of the Department of Defense's proposed changes to the U.S. military base structure. The department's proposal would remove all fighter jets and most of the 3,000 Air Force personnel from Eielson Air Force Base, 25 miles southeast of Fairbanks.

The Fairbanks hearing will be the first such regional event held by the commission. Two other hearings scheduled earlier in other parts of the country have been canceled or delayed because of a delay in the release of information from the Department of Defense.

A Senate committee issued subpoenas to the Pentagon on Tuesday asking for more information on the decisions to shut down and realign military installations.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., the ranking Democrat, authorized the subpoenas for the panel.

The subpoenas were served by facsimile late Tuesday.

The legal move comes after weeks of complaints from members of Congress and state officials about the slow release of information from the Pentagon and the lack of backup material being provided. Officials have also objected that much information is classified and therefore cannot be discussed in public or at any of the upcoming hearings on the newest round of proposed base closures.

"The department knew this day was coming," Collins said. "There is absolutely no excuse for the department not to have completed the declassification process by now. That's just another example of foot dragging."

The committee also is seeking additional e-mails and internal Defense Department memos underlining the decisions.

The Pentagon will have until noon Monday to provide the information.

Pentagon officials have repeatedly said they are releasing the information as quickly as they can. They are in the process of declassifying much of the information so it can be released publicly.

Two of the commissioners coming to Fairbanks have Alaska connections.

Principi was secretary of veterans affairs during President Bush's first term. Prior to that, he headed a medical services company and was an executive with Lockheed Martin. After leaving the Department of Veterans Affairs in January this year, he briefly worked for Pfizer Corp., the pharmaceutical manufacturer, before taking the commission chairmanship.

Principi served as the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs Committee's chief attorney in the mid-1980s when Gov. Frank Murkowski was an Alaska senator and served as committee chairman. Murkowski said Monday he had talked about Eielson with Principi.

Coyle, currently a senior adviser with the Center for Defense Information, has been an outspoken critic of the missile defense system, which has interceptors based at Fort Greely, 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks.

He served as assistant secretary of defense for test and evaluation during President Clinton's administration and before that served as a top administrator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In 1971, he directed the Spartan nuclear warhead test on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.

Hansen served as a Utah congressman from 1981 to 2003.

At the Fairbanks hearing, the commissioners will listen to Stevens and University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton, a retired Army general, advocate for a continued significant Air Force presence at Eielson.

This week, the Defense Department released several large new files with information on its proposal to remove those fighters and personnel.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski's spokesman, Elliott Bundy, said the new files appear to contain the meeting transcripts that could reveal the reasoning behind the Eielson cutback.

"That's what we've been looking for the whole time," he said.

However, the information isn't easily deciphered, Bundy said.

"You've got to wade through it," he said.

Jim Dodson, chairman of the Save Eielson task force in Fairbanks, said he received 20 gigabytes of digital data from the Air Force that included plenty of spread sheets and graphs but no detailed minutes from meetings where the decision to realign Eielson were made.

Defense Department officials, in testimony and in the information released to date, have said they want to save money by consolidating Eielson's fighters with others at Lower 48 bases. Eielson is an expensive place to operate, they have said.

Also, under a revised structure, Alaska's airspace could provide more training opportunities for jet pilots from around the country, they said.

The department, in response to the initial criticism about delays, opened a secure reading room last week at the Pentagon in which congressional staff with security clearances could read the unreleased material.

Murkowski's aide Isaac Edwards reviewed the material late last week. Bundy said it was helpful but still cumbersome because of the volume.

The department also briefed Stevens' aide Sid Ashworth on the classified material.

"It was effective to some extent in providing answers to some questions we've had, but it didn't answer all of our questions and it in turn created more questions," Boone said.

The local task force will not ask the commission to delay the June 15 hearing, Dodson said.

"We like going first," he said.

As the first hearing, it will attract national media coverage, Dodson said. He also expects representatives from other communities to attend.

Dodson said the Defense Department recommendations contain enough misinformation to fuel a rebuttal.

"We have a great story to tell about why Eielson fits into the military's nation defense plans," Dodson said. "We hope we'll receive more information to back up that story, but if we don't, the story isn't going to go away."

The Pentagon is repeating the same mistakes it made after both world wars, Dodson said.

"They are ignoring the future threats from Asia," Dodson said.

Gov. Murkowski said he has also been working behind the scenes to defend Eielson.

"They're either reluctant to release the information or they're just declassifying it in bits and pieces," Murkowski said of the Defense Department.

The BRAC Commission did not recommend the cutback at Eielson. The Air Force suggested it and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made it part of the Pentagon's recommendations to the commission in mid-May. The whole process started when Congress in 2002 mandated this fifth round of base restructuring.

After the BRAC Commission holds its hearings and visits affected bases, it will modify the Defense Department's recommendations and forward a revised plan to President Bush by Sept. 8.

Bush will have two weeks to either accept the plan in its entirety, reject it or ask for changes. If he accepts the plan, either immediately or after changes, he will give it to Congress. Congress then will have 45 legislative days to reject the plan or it goes into effect. No congressional amendments are permitted.

Staff writer R.A. Dillon and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at (202) 662-8721 or sbishop@newsminer.com .

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