|
|
|
 |
|
Home / Washington Business - November/December 2003 / Washington’s Military Bases Fared Well Last Time, But This Go-Round is No “Slam Dunk” |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Washington’s Military Bases Fared Well Last Time, But This Go-Round is No “Slam Dunk” |
|
|
|
Written On: November/December 2003 |
|
|
|
Written By: By Paul Schlienz |
|
|
|
Washington has a long and rich military history from the early days when Fort Vancouver was built on the north bank of the Columbia River to today’s top secret Trident submarine base at Bangor on the Hood Canal. That relationship continues to be mutually beneficial, providing thousands of jobs and pouring billions into our economy each year.
But as our national defense strategies and capabilities change and new world threats materialize, the Pentagon is continually reassessing its strategic locations. The latest analysis is called the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) and it will make its recommendations to the President and Congress in 2006.
While it seems unlikely that all of our dozen Dept. of Defense (DOD) installations may be at risk of closure, some downsizing could occur. On the brighter side, some bases may be enlarged and assigned new missions.
“It is no ‘slam dunk’ that we’ll fare as well as we did during the last go round,” Association of Washington Business (AWB) President Don Brunell said. “That’s why AWB, the Washington Roundtable and chambers across our state are organizing to make our best case to the BRAC. We were very fortunate in the last round of base closure recommendations and actually got more troops and dollars, but things are different today.”
Brunell and three other AWB leaders meeting with President Bush at Boeing Field on August 22, made the case for Washington’s military bases. The President’s advice was to “continue to make your case even stronger.”
Today, the Department of Defense (DOD) spends $20-$28 billion each year in Washington. Considering our state’s whole two-year operating budget is $23 billion, that is a whopping sum of money - an important spoke in our economic wheel.
DOD is currently developing criteria to be used in realignment and closure. It’s looking at all our bases and analyzing how they fit into the military’s 20-year mission. DOD believes 25 percent of its bases could potentially be closed.
With that threat lurking in the background, are military giants like Fort Lewis safe? Fort Lewis; its next door neighbor, McChord Air Force Base; and Madigan Army Medical Center massively impact Pierce County’s economy. According to the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, 15 percent of the county’s 235,000 civilian workers are employed at the installations.
Fort Lewis is the Washington’s largest base and encompasses 86,000 acres between Olympia and Tacoma. Over 20,000 soldiers are stationed there and with military families the population within base balloons to 96,000. In addition 15,700 Fort Lewis family members live off base in Pierce and Thurston counties.
While the Army is busy upgrading its facilities on Fort Lewis - $56.1 million in construction contracts awarded in 2003 alone - Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber leader Gary Bracket remembers the last BRAC round closed the Army’s mammoth Fort Ord on California’s Monterey Peninsula.
While Fort Lewis got one third of Fort Ord’s 7th Infantry Division, Bracket and other community leaders are working to insure that other bases don’t steal from Fort Lewis in this go-around.
Fort Lewis has lots of advantages. Fortunately, it is home to I Corps, has the Yakima Training Center for maneuver and on-the-move live fire, and is only Army base west of Colorado and south of Alaska with its primary focus on the Pacific. Considering the current North Korean threat, its importance is enhanced.
McChord Air Force Base just received the new C-17 transports replacing the old C-141—the cargo aircraft which brought the Vietnam War prisoners home from Hanoi during its heyday.
While the Army closed the famed Letterman Army Hospital at the Presidio in San Francisco, it transferred many doctors, nurses and technicians to the spanking new Madigan Army Hospital in the last round.
Other bases in the state are more isolated. For example, Fairchild Air Force Base is the largest employer in eastern Washington and the military - mostly Fairchild - accounts for 10 percent of the Spokane region’s income.
Fairchild was an important B-52 bomber base before being converted to a KC-135 aerial refueling station. If Congress approves the new 767 tanker leasing deal, Fairchild is the likely recipient of the upgraded tanker fleet. But that deal may be in jeopardy in the Senate.
“In 2006, Fairchild could receive $200 million,” said Nicole Hillman-Smith of the Spokane Region Chamber of Commerce. “This spending would be related to the Air Force leasing 767 refuelers from Boeing.”
Some old-timers can’t help but remember that another prominent Washington B-52 bomber installation - Larson Air Force Base near Moses Lake - got whacked in a 1966 round of base closures.
In the central Puget Sound, the Navy has profound impact on Kitsap County’s economy. With facilities like the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Naval Station Bremerton, Naval Submarine Base Bangor and Naval Undersea Weapons Engineering Center Division Keyport, the military contributes 42.3 percent of total earnings in Kitsap County.
“I don’t see the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard or Bangor being closed because their capabilities are unique and exist nowhere else,” Will Lent said. Lent, a 29 year naval veteran, chairs Kitsap County’s BRAC response committee.
“The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is the only dry dock on the West Coast that’s qualified to repair nuclear aircraft carriers,” Lent added. “Keyport, however, could be closed. It is not tied to a single strategic program. Keyport’s location near Bangor, however, is extremely important.”
Bangor is home to the Trident nuclear submarine which is viewed by most military experts as the single most important deterrent to nuclear war.
Further north, Snohomish County, where the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is docked, receives 3.3 percent of its total earnings from the military. Naval Station Everett has some strong advantages. It is new and has one of the deepest ports on the West Coast. That was one of Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson’s (D-Washington, 1953-1983) key points when he proposed that base over 30 years ago.
Island County, with a whopping 47 percent of its earnings from the military, is home of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island where the radar-jamming E-6 prowlers stay when not at sea with their assigned carriers. Folks in Oak Harbor vividly remember the last base closure round when the naval air station was on the bubble to the very end.
“Military capabilities and missions change quickly,” added Brunell, who retired from the Washington Army National Guard after 22 years of service. “Just look at Washington state history and you can see a pattern were military installations have been decommissioned when missions change, so we can’t afford to sit back and say we are safe from BRAC.”
When the U.S. Army took over Fort Vancouver in 1848, it was strategically important as an outpost for fur traders. Today, it is historic site in the City of Vancouver. The same is true for Fort Simcoe, near White Swan, and Fort Walla Walla, established to protect American settlers heading west.
Forts Casey on Whidbey Island, Flagler near Indian Island and Worden near Port Townsend were coastal naval batteries forming a triangulated iron shield to protect the Puget Sound from possible British invasion via Canada. Today, they are state parks.
“Things change quickly and lots can happen between now and 2006 so we have to engage in the BRAC at every step of the way,” Brunell concluded.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
