The Bowdoin Orient

Naval Air Station Brunswick (NASB), the enormous military base next to the College, may be facing closure.

On a date no later than May 16, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will release a list of recommended Department of Defense (DoD) base closures.

If neither President George W. Bush nor the U.S. Congress officially objects to the Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) list, those military installations will be phased out of service in the next five years.

If NASB, Maine's second largest employer, is closed, the state's economy?and, in particular, the town of Brunswick's?will be negatively affected.

According to a 2004 report from the NAS Brunswick Task Force, a local advocacy group, "the economic contribution from NAS Brunswick to the region's economy will be $2.4 billion over the next 10 years."

Local businesses, residents of Midcoast Maine, former Naval Officers, and regular working men and women have all pushed hard for the Station to remain open, citing the installation's immense importance to the national security of the United States and the economic security of the Midcoast region and the state as a whole.

Brunswick business owners are particularly worried.

"If it closed, it would have a tremendous negative effect on our business," said Jeanne Burton, manager and owner of Fat Boy Drive-In.

Professor of English William Watterson agreed. If NASB is closed, "certainly a short-term depression of the local economy" would follow, he said.

The future of the Air Station also concerns politicians. "NASB is an indispensable part of our national security infrastructure," said Mark Sullivan, Director of Communications for Congressman Tom Allen. "The Air Station is essential to our homeland security in this era of heightened concern."

BRAC

Following the end of the Cold War, it became apparent to the Congress that the military was unnecessarily large. The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 became law in November of that year.

The Act was passed in order "to provide a fair process that [would] result in the timely closure and realignment of military installations inside the United States." All bases would be considered for closure.

A number of installations, aligned with all the services?the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines?were closed in the first BRAC round in 1991. The DoD determined that these based were no longer necessary.

More bases were closed in subsequent BRAC rounds in 1993 and 1995. In all of these rounds NASB avoided the chopping block.

In 1994 there were nine active airfields in Northeast: two in northeast New York, four in Massachusetts, one in New Hampshire, and two in Maine.

Today, Brunswick's Naval Air Station is the only active DoD operational airfield in the Northeast.

For fiscal year 2005, Congress approved another round of base closures.

Based on how well installations meet eight specific criteria published by DoD in 2004, military bases will be recommended for closure or realignment. Rumsfeld's recommendations will be released publicly by May 16.

According to released DoD documents, some of the major criteria used by the Secretary of Defense to select installations for closure include: the base's overall military and strategic value, the "availability and condition of land, facilities and associated airspace," and the cost of running the base.

Some of the minor criteria used by Rumsfeld to assess the importance of the installations include: possible savings of base closure, possible economic impact of base closure on surrounding communities, and "environmental impact."

A commission of nine people, appointed by Bush and approved by the Senate, will examine Rumsfeld's recommendations and amend the list as it sees fit.

The report and final list from the commissioners will be given to Bush by September 8. He will have 15 days to accept or reject the list. Bush will not be able to change the list in any way.

Assuming that the President approves the list, as he likely will, Congress will have 45 "legislative days" to act. Barring a joint resolution rejecting the list passed by both the House and Senate in that time period, the BRAC list will become law.

Any base on the final list is required to be fully shut down or realigned by 2011.

Citizen Involvement

In 1987, with the specter of base closures looming, concerned citizens from the area created the NAS Brunswick Task Force with the mission of providing the BRAC with "relevant, accurate, complete and verifiable" information.

The Task Force has never been disbanded and has played a role in keeping NASB open during previous BRAC rounds.

For the 2005 BRAC round, Cdr. Richard H. Tetrev USN (Ret.) was appointed chairman of the Task Force.

Tetrev, the former second in command at NASB and former head of the Brunswick-Bath Chamber of Commerce, has put together what he calls "an extremely effective team" of people from all walks of life including former military personnel, experts in communications and economics, a CEO, the town managers of Brunswick and Bath, and others.

The Task Force sees the base as essential for U.S. national and homeland security. Tetrev provided an example:

"Say a merchant ship was coming out of England with a WMD on it intended for the United States. Aircraft from NASB could go out, up to 1,700 miles, and pick up that ship and track it?or, if they had to, they could put a weapon it."

"We sincerely believe that NASB's military value is the highest it has been since the 1950s," he added.

According to NASB's web site, the airbase is "located near great circle routes for both shipping and air lanes and...is the base closest to the European theater and NATO commands."

The Base

Located on more than 3,200 acres of land, the NASB's stated mission is "to operate DoD's primary military air station in the northeast region of the United States in support of the operational forces of the U.S. and its allies."

The Air Station is home to five active-duty squadrons of P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft with about 400 people in each squadron.

Although the location of currently deployed squadrons is classified, recent squadron deployments have been to Italy, Japan, Bahrain, and the Caribbean.

The Air Station has recently undergone "a large number of facility upgrades" at a cost of $102.6 million, according to John W. James who is the Director of Public Affairs at NASB.

"We've just finished a $35 million six-bay hanger that will accommodate the new P-8 aircraft which will begin to replace P-3 Orion in 2011 or 2012," James said. "It is the only hanger in the Navy with the ability to handle these new planes."

Effects of a Closure

By all accounts, the closure of NASB would result in a catastrophic blow to the economy of the Midcoast region and to the financial stability of the state of Maine. Unemployment in Brunswick would soar 66 percent, according to the NASB Task Force.

More than 5,227 civilian and military men and women work at NASB. Together they will contribute more than $333.6 million to the regional economy in fiscal year 2004.

For businesses like Fat Boy Drive-In, which is next to NASB, an economic downturn could result if the Air Base appears on the final BRAC list.

"We've had a lot of Navy people coming to eat here for a long time?so long that now some of their children come here," manager and owner Burton said.

"If the Air Station were to close," she added, "life around here just wouldn't be the same."