Group pledges to 'poke holes' in base choice

By BART JANSEN, Washington Correspondent

Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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In Depth: Base Closings The New England hearing on the Pentagon's recent military base closing recommendations will be held in Boston on July 6. Special section on how upcoming military base closures could affect Maine features a blog covering news and analysis from around the country. READER COMMENTS: How will the proposed military realignment affect you? The section also keeps an archive of local news stories about the Brunswick Naval Air Station and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Readers also can add their comments to selected stories and vote in an online survey. Sign up for Blog Updates to be delivered to your e-mail each time the section is updated. To top of story

WASHINGTON — The fight to save the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is shaping up as a competition between the Kittery shipyard and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii.

After meeting Thursday with Maine's congressional delegation, Maine Gov. John Baldacci cited Portsmouth's higher ranking than Pearl Harbor in military value, which is the biggest factor the Defense Department is supposed to consider in deciding to close or realign bases.

The Pentagon's estimates of cost savings and closure costs at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard are unrealistic, Baldacci and lawmakers said.

"I think the case itself is going to be very strong," Baldacci said. "We're going to take it apart piece by piece."

Baldacci met with Maine and New Hampshire lawmakers to plot strategy against the Pentagon's recommendation to close Portsmouth, cut in half the number of active-duty military personnel at the Brunswick Naval Air Station and close a defense accounting center in Limestone.

The Defense Department has not yet released documents explaining its reasoning behind choosing the bases. But even without those documents, expected to be released today, elected officials believe the numbers don't add up.

"I think these were capricious, arbitrary decisions," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. "The fact that they haven't presented the documentation is the primary evidence that they don't have a case."

Baldacci said the Pentagon's own scores for military value rank Portsmouth third among the four government shipyards. He and lawmakers highlighted Portsmouth's reputation for returning nuclear submarines to the fleet ahead of schedule and under budget.

But Navy officials have insisted on closing a shipyard because of excess capacity. Despite Portsmouth's reputation for excellent work, Navy officials argued this week that any cost savings from keeping Portsmouth open would be eclipsed by higher costs at the other yards.

Maine stands to lose 7,000 civilian and military jobs - the second-largest number in the country, behind Connecticut - if the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission agrees with the Pentagon's list in its final report on Sept. 8. President Bush and Congress can either accept or reject the entire list, without changes.

Because the meeting was held jointly with the New Hampshire delegation, talk focused on the Kittery shipyard, which would lose 4,510 jobs, most of them held by civilian residents of the two states.

"We're plotting our strategy," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Armed Services Committee. "We're going to poke holes in all the arguments that have been listed. I think it's an easy case to make, despite the difficulty in reversing the Pentagon's decision."

Lawmakers said they would also work to overturn recommendations that the Brunswick Naval Air Station lose about half of its work force - 2,420 jobs - and send its P-3 Orion aircraft to Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida.

The Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Limestone would close and lose 354 jobs. The Naval Reserve Center in Bangor would also close, eliminating seven jobs.

Baldacci, a former House member, planned to meet with two commission members, former Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, and former Rep. James Bilbray, R-Nev. Snowe, who served in the House with Hansen and Bilbray, spoke Wednesday with the commission chairman, Anthony Principi, and Commissioner Samuel Skinner.

Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine, had spoken earlier to Principi, a former secretary of veterans affairs whom Michaud knew from committee work for veterans. Delegation members divided up commissioners to make personal pleas.

On another front, Snowe and Collins introduced legislation Thursday to postpone the latest round of base closures. But the bill's prospects are uncertain because congressional leadership has defeated previous attempts to delay the process.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said military value, which spans four of the eight criteria studied for every base, was the top consideration in the recommendations.

Portsmouth scored third among shipyards that include Puget Naval Shipyard in Washington state, Norfolk (Va.) Naval Shipyard in Virginia and Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, Baldacci said.

The last time detailed comparisons were released, in 1995, Portsmouth ranked fourth in military value, with 37.8 points to Pearl Harbor's 44.7 points. Puget got 57.6 points and Norfolk got 54.1 points, although those yards are generally considered too large and diverse to close.

But lawmakers said Portsmouth improved its ranking during the last decade by finishing repairs early and saving an estimated $200 million a year. They questioned the way the Navy made its decision.

"We are very concerned about the Navy's numbers," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. "We don't think they make sense on their face. It's almost intuitively obvious by looking at them that something's not right in those numbers."

Navy Secretary Gordon England and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vernon Clark insisted at a hearing Tuesday that they need to close a shipyard to save money. The other three shipyards handle a variety of ships, in contrast to Portsmouth, which has specialized in maintaining nuclear submarines, a fleet in decline.

Clark said he chose to keep Pearl Harbor because of its strategic location in the Pacific.