State makes case for base before BRAC panel

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and both of Idaho's senators made the case for Mountain Home AFB before the first hearing held nationally by the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission last Friday in Portland.

The initial recommendations to the BRAC Commission by the Department of Defense call for Mountain Home AFB to receive an additional squadron of F-15E aircraft in 2009, boosting the base population by about 700 personnel, and then to lose the F-15C and F-16CJ squadrons in 2011, resulting in a net loss of just over 500 military jobs on base at that time.

In addition, BRAC calls for the removal of all C-130 aircraft from the Idaho Air National Guard, transferring them to Wyoming.

The state's delegation, which had one hour to make its case before the BRAC Commission, stressed primarily the military value of Mountain Home AFB, which is a major criteria for the current, and last, round of BRACs that began in the early 1990s.

At the end of the 40-minute presentation the BRAC Commission did not ask any questions, as they had with other state's presentations. Instead, one member of the commission, former Utah Congressman Butch Hansen, who had made a recent visit to Mountain Home AFB, took the opportunity to make a statement praising the base for the quality of its infrastructure and personnel, calling it "unbelievable, amazingly good stuff."

The Idaho presentation team took a "divide-and-conquer" approach to the presentation, that Ron Swearingen, the Mountain Home economic development director, called a "very well-orchestrated tag-team affair."

Swearingen, who along with city and Chamber officials attended the hearing, gave credit to Billy Richey, the governor's military liason based in Mountain Home, for coordinating the presentation, preparing the slides that went with it, and providing data that disputed information put together by DoD regarding the airbase.

"We were the last state to make our presentation," Swearingen said, "and I think we blew the others out of the water in terms of the quality of our presentation. We weren't whiney, either. We just made our case."

The delegation presented a packet of information that disputed some of the data in the original DoD BRAC recommendation.

For example, the DoD report on the base indicated Mountain Home had no federally licensed daycares. But the city has 26 daycares licensed by the state, which has adopted the federal standards, and there are another 44 daycares approved by the state. In addition, the base has a federally approved daycare center.

Some of DoD's housing availability data also reflected numbers that were nearly a decade out of date, and the state's delegation updated those numbers.

Idaho Senator Larry Craig led off the 40-minute discussion by addressing military value, current and future growth, and the absence of environmental issues and encroachment at MHAFB.

"Without question," Craig said, "our pilots benefit from 'joint' training..." at the base, which features three types of aircraft currently assigned to the 366th Wing.

"Realigning Mountain Home to a single aircraft wing erodes critical in-place combat training synergies not found elsewhere," he said.

"By making Mountain Home Air Force Base, and other bases around the country, a single flying unit, I fear we may be making decisions that will cost us more money in the long run to perform 'joint' training."

A great deal of the BRAC recommendation, with regard to the Air Force realignments and base closures, involves returning to the Cold War system of assigning only one type of aircraft to a wing, a move that in peacetime usually results in savings due to common maintenance capabilities.

"Idaho," Craig said, "is best situated for its current roles and missions and presents the nation with its greatest strategic opportunity to expand while maximizing joint and coalition training opportunities at the lowest and most convenient cost to U.S. taxpayers."

Sen. Mike Crapo followed Craig by addressing community support, community sustainment, and the economic impact of the proposed moves.

"The community of Mountain Home provides an unprecedented level of support for the Mountain Home Air Force Base," Crapo said.

"We want to ensure changes to the base maintain stability for the local economy," he added, stressing that the timing of any of the proposed BRAC moves could be critical to the community.

"Mountain Home Air Force Base is prepared to grow and continue to play an integral role in the future of the defense of the United States. The whole State of Idaho carries great pride in the Mountain Home Air Force Base and Gowen Field and wants to see them have a strong and prosperous future," he said.

Gov. Kempthorne primarily addressed the importance of the C-130 mission at Gowen Field, especially its capability to help shift national guard forces around the state if needed in an emergency, such as fighting fires. All the national guard transport aircraft in the Pacific Northwest would be moved out of the region under the BRAC recommendations.

The U.S. House of Representatives was in session Friday, so representatives Mike Simpson and C.L. "Butch" Otter were unable to attend.

"I think we sent a very good message about Mountain Home," Richey said. BRAC commissioner Hansen's statement, he said, showed that "he basically agreed with everything we said about the value of Mountain Home. In my opinion, he functionally said Mountain Home was here for the future."

Richey also praised the governor and the state's congressional delegation for the amount of time they had spent working the issue and getting ready for the presentation.

He also noted that the current BRAC recommendations do not reflect any changes that may occur as a result of overseas basing realignments or new weapon systems coming on line, and that with excess capacity Mountain Home AFB could be in line to receive some of those forces.

Swearingen agreed.

"I think DoD may have left a hole here on purpose," he said. "The Air Force knows what we have here," with the training range and the capability for expansion of the base facilities and runways. "I think there's a good chance we could pick up some of the other missions" that aren't part of the BRAC process.

Furthermore, he said, "for a long time, we've had the possibility of a base closure hanging over our heads. It's colored everything we do and how other people look at our community. But now, since this is the last BRAC, we know we're going to be here to stay. That's a real positive for the long run."