Time ripe for isle
carriers, says CaseThe Navy is weighing options
to add ships to the Pacific Fleet
The Navy says it is "premature" to say whether any of its 12 aircraft carriers will be based at Pearl Harbor.
However, U.S. Rep. Ed Case believes that there are now "serious discussions" on such a move with the Pentagon reviewing and realigning its forces after the war with Iraq.
"Now is a good time to take a second glance," Case told the Star-Bulletin yesterday. "I think it would be a fantastic development for the islands. I support it. I want it to happen."
Case, a Democratic freshman House member, said he has not made any specific overtures to Pentagon planners yet, but believes the time is ripe based on past statements by Navy leaders.
Last week, Adm. Vernon Clark, chief of naval operations, told reporters in Washington, D.C., that the Navy is considering increasing the number of ships assigned to the Pacific Fleet and downsizing the forces based in the Atlantic. However, he said he was not ready to discuss the changes. Case said the head of the Atlantic Fleet has made similar statements on the possibility of reassigning one of six his carriers to the Pacific.
Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, spokesman for acting Navy Secretary Hansford Johnson, said yesterday it was "premature" to say what the makeup of a realigned force will be.
Wensing said representatives of the Chamber Commerce of Hawaii met with Johnson earlier this week, but he does not think there was a discussion about locating an aircraft carrier at Pearl Harbor. "The discussions were mainly about the importance of keeping ships in Hawaii," Wensing said.
The Navy maintains six carriers in the Atlantic Fleet. In the Pacific, the Navy has four based in San Diego and two in Washington. The carriers USS Stennis, USS Constellation (which will be decommissioned this summer) and USS Nimitz are berthed in San Diego. The USS Reagan will be home ported there after its sea trials end next year.
Case said concerns about North Korea and terror groups in Asia and the Philippines have made U.S. military officials realize that Hawaii is an important area for the United States to protect. He pointed out that deploying a carrier battle group to Hawaii would make sense along with plans to modernize the Army with a Stryker mobile brigade at Schofield Barracks and assignment of new C-17 transport jets to Hickam Air Force Base.
A 1998 Navy environmental study examined and then ruled out the possibility of basing a 97,000-ton Nimitz-class aircraft carrier at Pearl Harbor because it would be too expensive.
Hawaii legislators, some of whom are part of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii's annual delegation visiting military leaders and Hawaii's congressional members in Washington, D.C., this week, estimated that a carrier would pump $375 million a year into the local economy and create 4,200 jobs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.