Officials: Base cuts hurt NW defense
PORTLAND – The Pentagon’s plans to cut back some military bases and shift many of the Northwest’s fighter jets, cargo planes and air refueling planes to other states will make the region vulnerable to attack, governors and others warned a federal commission Friday.
One of those testifying, Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon, said the Pentagon’s plans will leave just a handful of planes to defend “a target-rich environment,” citing the dams along the Columbia River, the Umatilla Chemical Weapons Depot and the Hanford nuclear site.
Drawing most of the national security concerns was Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s plan, announced last month, to significantly reduce the Air National Guard base in Portland.
Under the plan, 15 F-15 fighter jets operated by the 142nd Fighter Wing would be transferred to New Jersey and Louisiana, and eight KC-135 tankers flown by the 939th Air Refueling Wing would go to Oklahoma and Kansas.
“Our enemies will look for the weakest link, and the weakest link will be in the Northwest,” Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said during a regional hearing of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.
Aside from relinquishing planes, Oregon also will lose up 1,000 jobs to base closures and realignment – 564 of them from shuttering the Air Guard station at Portland.
Top officials from Idaho, Montana and Washington state also raised concerns about the effects of the Pentagon’s plans to close or realign military installations around the Northwest.
In testimony Friday, Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne took aim at a recommendation to realign the Boise Air Guard Station with Wyoming’s 153rd Airlift Wing by sending all four of Idaho’s C-130 cargo planes to Cheyenne.
Those planes would be crucial in moving emergency supplies or troops to the site of a terrorist attack, Kempthorne said.
“By removing the C-130s from Idaho, our ability to rapidly respond to a weapon of mass destruction in the Northwest is virtually eliminated,” the governor said.
Idaho is expected to lose more than 650 jobs as a result of the Pentagon’s proposals, mostly from realigning Mountain Home Air Force Base to reduce the variety of jet fighters there.
Washington is the only state in the Northwest that gains under the plan, picking up 760 new jobs.
Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, who is on a trade mission in Europe this week, submitted testimony to the commission saying while she generally agrees with the recommendations, she, too, is worried about Northwest planes being moved elsewhere.
Aside from moving the fighter jets away from Portland, the Pentagon also wants to reassign eight KC-135 air refueling aircraft from Fairchild Air Force Base, near Spokane.
If those recommendations become final, Gregoire said, “our protection from air assault would be less than half of what it was when we were attacked on Sept. 11.”
The Pentagon also proposes reducing the Montana Air National Guard unit at Great Falls. The plan calls for removing the Air Guard’s 15 F-16 fighters and transferring six of those to bases in Iowa and Alabama, a move that could eliminate up to 450 jobs.
“The unprecedented drawdown of fighter and airlift assets without a formulated replacement strategy endangers the national security of our country,” said Montana Sen. Max Baucus, a Democrat.
The proposed base closings and realignments were announced by the Pentagon in mid-May as part of a nationwide plan to close 33 bases and downsize 29 others to save an estimated $48 billion over 20 years.
The commission has until Sept. 8 to present its recommendations to President Bush. In past years, about 85 percent of base closures recommended by the Pentagon have remained on the commission’s list.
Commission Chairman Anthony Principi said after Friday’s hearing that the panel will not be a “rubber stamp” for the Pentagon’s proposals and that commissions will carefully consider the national security concerns raised by Northwest leaders.
One of them, Sen. Ron Wyden, said that without a change, the Pentagon proposals put the entire region at risk.
“The initial recommendations will leave the airspace over the Northwest virtually defenseless if the enemy chooses to attack this corner of the country from the air,” the Oregon Democrat said.