SEA Power, the Navy League's official publication, landed on my desk this week. The January edition is sort of a combination corporate annual report, Jane's Fighting Ships, world almanac and telephone directory. Defense dollars count
in HawaiiIt had some interesting numbers. They're from 1995 - a little out of date, but so am I.
We know the military presence in Hawaii is large, but how does it rank nationally?
Eight other states have more people in uniform than Hawaii. We had close to 37,000, plus 17,000 civilian Defense Department workers for a total of 54,000 workers in and out of uniform. California, Virginia and Texas, by comparison, had 220,000, 185,000 and 170,000. North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Maryland and Washington also had more than we.
Compare these numbers to total population, however, and Hawaii is way out ahead with 4.9 percent of all our people working for the military. Virginia is next at 3.0 percent.
Defense spending is another story. Although the Hawaii military payroll for active duty, retired, reserved and National Guard ranks 12th at $2.3 billion, we're only number 32 in defense contract spending at $674 million. California led with contracts worth $18 billion.
How large do defense dollars figure in our economy? Very large. As a percentage of our gross state product (using 1990 Census figures), defense spending in Hawaii is about 10 percent, second only to Virginia's 16 percent. That's big.
