Isle unions sweating
base decision

Pearl Harbor shipyard workers
anxiously await a closure vote

A union official says it's difficult to wait rather than fight to keep the 97-year-old Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard open.

Robert Lillis, who heads the 500-member local lodge of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said closure of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard would "personally be devastating. There are very, very few jobs of this quality anywhere on this island."

The union realizes that the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure commission is only seeking answers from the Pentagon on why Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine should be shuttered instead of Pearl, Lillis said. "The mood here is one of nervousness. There is lot of apprehension. Some are very upset about this announcement."

Lillis said the various unions, representing the 4,200 civilian workers at the state's largest industrial employer, have to walk a tightrope.

"It's hard," Lillis acknowledged, reviewing the steps other states have taken to fight the Pentagon's recommendations. "We don't want to underplay it and at the same time we don't want to overplay it."

However, Lillis said the issue should not be one that pits Portsmouth against Pearl.

"That's not logical," Lillis said. "Portsmouth on the East Coast cannot support the Pacific Fleet. That's not creditable reasoning. We have the strategic advantage ... We are here because we are in the middle of the Pacific and are able to support our fleet and Asia."

In Boston this afternoon, four BRAC commissioners were to decide after a public hearing whether to accept the Pentagon's May 13 recommendation to close the nation's oldest naval base. This is the third time Portsmouth has been placed on BRAC's hit list. Pentagon predicts closing Portsmouth would save $1.3 billion over 20 years.

Portsmouth supporters are hoping that as many as 3,400 shipyard workers will take the day off and take advantage of 75 buses rented by the Seacoast Shipyard Association and fill up the 4,000-seat convention center in Boston, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported yesterday.

More than 4,000 civilians work at Portsmouth, which straddles the border of Maine and New Hampshire. The naval shipyards at Pearl Harbor; Portsmouth; Bremerton, Wash.; and Norfolk, Va., repair, maintain and refuel the Navy's submarine fleet. However, Bremerton, Norfolk and Pear Harbor also work on other combat vessels.

On Friday, the Government Accountability Office reported that despite Pearl Harbor's "slightly lower military value score," it has the advantage of being able to berth an aircraft carrier that Portsmouth can't and serves a home port in the mid-Pacific for the Navy's Pacific Fleet.

A vote on whether to include Pearl Harbor on the BRAC hit list will take place on July 19. It will take seven of the nine commissioners to add Pearl Harbor to the closure list.

After evaluating the Pentagon's recommendations, the BRAC commission will submit its own list to the president Sept. 9 for review and approval, then to Congress, which must accept or reject the list in its entirety.

2 members of base closure
group have Hawaii ties

At least two of the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure commission have served in the islands while they were in the military.

Retired Army Gen. James Hill, whose 36-year career culminated with duty as commander of U.S. Southern Command, first arrived at Schofield Barracks in September 1976 as junior officer.

Retired Navy Adm. Harold Gehman Jr., during his more than 35 years on active duty, served as the commanding officer of the Navy salvage ship USS Conserver in Pearl Harbor.

Gehman also served as NATO's supreme allied commander, Atlantic, and as commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command.

Hill returned to Wahiawa several times in his Army career -- once in 1985 as commander of the 25th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 35th Infantry. Later, he was assistant division commander when Tropic Lightning soldiers went to Haiti in 1994. From 1997 to 1999, Hill was the 40th commander of the Tropic Lightning Division.

The BRAC commission is headed by Anthony Principi, former secretary of veterans affairs. The other commission members are:

» Former Nevada Rep. James Bilbray, who was a member of House committees on foreign affairs, armed services and intelligence.

» Philip Coyle of California, a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information. He has served as an assistant secretary of defense and director of operational test and evaluation.

» Former Utah Rep. James Hansen, who served on the House Armed Services Committee. He served in the Navy from 1951 to 1955.

» Retired Air Force Gen. Lloyd "Fig" Newton, who served in uniform for 34 years, culminating as commander of Air Education and Training Command.

» Samuel Knox Skinner, who served as President George H.W. Bush's chief of staff and as secretary of transportation.

» Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Sue Ellen Turner of Texas, a member of the American Battle Monuments Commission. She served for 30 years, most recently as the director of nursing services in the Office of the Air Force Surgeon General.