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THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB) |
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THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACCOUNTABILITY OF AMERICAN BASES (CAAB) |
| Borderland Monday, November 24, 2003 | |||||||
| http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20031124-48582.shtml Steve Ramirez Las Cruces Sun-News
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Source: Institute for Policy and Economic Development, UTEP.
The series
The El Paso Times, Las Cruces Sun-News and Alamogordo Daily News have teamed up to examine the potential implications of the Base Realignment and Closure process on regional military bases:
"When I first went out there three years ago, I had done my homework and said then that White Sands would prosper and be a receptor for any (Base Realignment and Closure) functions that might occur," said Engel, who retired as the base commander in June. "Here I am now, six months out and in the civilian sector, and nothing has changed my initial belief. If anything, I have stronger convictions."
Engel's convictions come despite several obvious challenges: White Sands' location in the drought-plagued Southern New Mexico desert; the large and increasing costs of replacing infrastructure and equipment that was in its prime in the 1960s; and trying to better educate the public about White Sands' mission and importance in national defense while maintaining restricted public access to the range.
"One of the things we have to keep on emphasizing is that White Sands is, or would be, hard to replicate," said Dora Dominguez, president and chief executive officer of the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce.
Many of the military's future defense systems are tested at White Sands, often in deep secrecy. It is one of only two sites in the nation -- the White House is the other -- in which airspace is restricted from the ground to infinity.
Military officials will not publicly comment on the next round of base realignments, expected in 2005. Criteria still must be developed for determining which military bases will be closed, consolidated or otherwise changed.
"It's hard, if not impossible, for anybody to say anything because nothing has been released yet," said Larry Furrow, White Sands spokesman. "There's still so much that isn't known. Because of the political implications BRAC could have, anyone in a position of authority probably isn't going to be able to saying anything anyway."
Dominguez said it's pointless to try to identify White Sands' main competitors in the BRAC process until the criteria have been publicly released.
"Nobody really knows anything for sure right now," Dominguez said. "The best way to proceed, for now, is to work on putting your best foot forward. We need to show off White Sands' best points, not only to those that will be in the position to make those decisions, but also to the public."
Las Cruces Mayor Bill Mattiace said it is anyone's guess who could be White Sands' primary competition in the base realignments.
"It's only speculation and wild speculation at that," Mattiace said. "But from some of the things I've heard, it sounds to me like California and Texas could be two competitors. But there's so much out there that isn't known yet. We just need to keep on plugging the benefits of having a place like White Sands and working to do everything we can to protect what we've got."
During the last round of realignments in 1995, White Sands was on a preliminary Department of Defense list of military installations considered for closure.
But White Sands and all other military installations in New Mexico and far West Texas -- Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque and Fort Bliss in El Paso -- avoided closure and serious reductions in operations.
A key to success in the next round will be working with neighboring installations and universities to stress the combined value to the nation's defense, leaders said.
"It has, and will, remain a fundamental necessity to keep the commanders of those installations talking to each other," Engel said. "What everyone needs to realize is that those installations and the communities they are closely tied to are also connected to each other. If they're smart, they need to stay tight and use that synergy that's already developed from being connected to each other."
Along those lines, Las Cruces, Alamogordo and El Paso have teamed up to create the Alliance for Regional Military Support.
"It's unique," said Carl Corbett, White Sands' representative to ARMS. "Because of the geographical proximity to each other, we are literally in a unique position. There may not be another region where there are this many installations located this close to each other. It's also become apparent to us that no one else has taken a regional approach about how to best serve each other."
Ed Brabson of Alamogordo, a member of the New Mexico Military Base Planning Commission, said U.S. defense programs, such as the Future Combat System, could become important in preventing possible consolidation or closure of White Sands, Holloman or Fort Bliss.
"Transformation is the catch word," Brabson said. "A major initiative of the Department of Defense is to create an American fighting force that is faster and more mobile while utilizing less people abroad. Just by the nature of the geography and the work that continues, White Sands, Holloman and Fort Bliss are already joined at the hip. You're talking about national assets at those three locations that can't be reproduced anywhere else."
Engel said the best proactive measures White Sands, Fort Bliss and Holloman could take would be to continue to highlight the working relationships that already exist between the three installations.
"White Sands will score high in the next BRAC, and I feel the same about Fort Bliss. I don't believe Holloman is in any danger," said Engel, who now lives in the Washington, D.C., area and works for the defense contractor Raytheon.
"My reasons for believing that are many. There's a new acronym out there being used to describe what would be the selling points of the next BRAC, and it's called JIM. Broken down, it means joint, interagency and multinational. If you look hard at it, White Sands, Fort Bliss and Holloman already have a lot of that going for each other. They're all the perfect example of joint operations; they work well with each other and they have a proven record of multiple branches of the military being able to work out there," Engel said.
"Interagency is awfully important, especially when you consider that NASA has been out there (at White Sands) for years and DTRA (Defense Threat Reduction Agency) has been there since 9/11. Multinational is going to be critical because you've already got the German Air Force already established at Holloman, and allied countries like Japan and Israel often conduct test missions at White Sands and Fort Bliss," he said.
