The Pentagon seems to have concluded that Eielson Air Force Base has no strategic importance, and "that is an absolute error in judgment," U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens said Tuesday.
Stevens, R-Alaska, spoke as he prepared to travel to Fairbanks to meet with state and community leaders who will try to persuade the Base Realignment and Closure Commission that Eielson should remain at current staffing levels. A hearing in Fairbanks is scheduled for June 15.
As part of the base closure and realignment process, the Defense Department on May 13 recommended that Eielson's active airmen be reduced by 2,800 and that its fighter aircraft be moved to other bases. The Pentagon contends that realigning most of Eielson's personnel would save nearly $230 million annually.
Borough and state officials fear that more than 1,700 additional jobs would be lost because of the reductions. The base is about 30 miles south of Fairbanks.
For Eielson to be removed from the realignment list, five of the nine BRAC members must disagree with the Defense Department recommendation. Commissioners would have to be persuaded that the Defense Department strayed from its realignment and closure criteria by putting Eielson on the list. Stevens said that is an extremely high hurdle but that defense planners had overlooked an aspect of Eielson's mission.
"They overlooked one substantial portion of that, which is that the current deployment here is one of dual mission," he said. "One, to reinforce the North Pacific, particularly in to South Korea. The other is to reinforce northern Europe."
Stevens has noted that the distance from Eielson to Berlin is roughly the same as the distance to the U.S. East Coast. Eielson also is the closest base on the U.S. mainland to east Asia.
"In both instances, both northern Europe and in South Korea, the forces there are being reduced, which should increase the need for forces here," he said.
"My message to Fairbanks is going to be that this isn't a Fairbanks issue. It's a statewide issue. It's a national issue."
The congressional delegation is frustrated by a lack of access to the information used by the military to make its decision on Eielson.
"The undersecretary of Defense made the decision that the analytical data should be classified, and both the Armed Services Committee and our Defense subcommittee are trying to convince them they're wrong," he said.
A letter Friday indicated the military stood by its decision.
The Defense Department did make the information available to BRAC, Stevens said.
"Our protests have at least got the information to the people who need it the most," he said.
The Defense Department has recognized Eielson's value as a training facility that units from other bases could use. But it's not valid to call Eielson prime training grounds if airmen only see one season there, Stevens said.
"They will probably only be here in the summertime," he said.
Stevens said he has not been able to get a reading on how BRAC Chairman Anthony Principi will treat Eielson realignment.
Principi was an aide to a committee chaired by Gov. Frank Murkowski when he was a U.S. senator. Principi is an independent thinker and a good choice to head the commission, Stevens said. At a closed hearing, Stevens said, Principi asked why the Air Force did not simply close Eielson.
"He said it seemed to him they had chosen the most expensive option," Stevens said, "which was to keep it warm without really utilizing it, and therefore he asked whether it should be closed altogether.
"I don't know where Principi is coming from," he said. "We know him very well. He was very capable in his role with Sen. Frank Murkowski when he was on the Veterans Committee."
Fairbanks officials and state leaders will have two hours to make their case when members of BRAC 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 accept the list, ask the commission for revisions or reject it.
If he accepts the commission recommendations, Congress will have 45 legislative days to accept or reject them, without revision.
Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission:
www.brac.gov
