Isles ready
to fight for base

State leaders will try to sway
commissioners in a decision that
could cost Hawaii $1.3 billion

WASHINGTON » Over the past two decades and four rounds of base closure decisions Hawaii has never been a target of a BRAC attack.

ON ASSIGNMENT Star-Bulletin reporter Gregg K. Kakesako is in Washington, D.C., to cover the BRAC public hearing.

But this week Hawaii will be on the defensive for the first time.

Hawaii's senior U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye says that everything is on the line and more than 5,000 Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard workers have to realize that they are in a fight that is appropriate to its motto -- Fit to Fight.

As the Pentagon reiterated on Friday in a letter to Anthony Principi, chairman of the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, the case to close either Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the oldest in the Navy, or Pearl Harbor could have gone either way.

Both shipyards hire about the same number of workers -- about 5,000. Both are considered economic engines in their regions. Portsmouth, which straddles the borders of Maine and New Hampshire, has a payroll of more than $283 million annually.

Pearl Harbor, billed as the state's largest industrial employer, has 4,297 civilian and 778 military workers who earn $385 million a year.

However, as with Portsmouth, the ripple effect on closing Pearl Harbor would mean an economic blow to the island's economy amounting to $1.3 billion with a 2.2 percent loss of Oahu's labor force.

Portsmouth advocates in the past have argued that the 297-acre shipyard repair facility is more efficient and can return ships to the fleet faster than expected at a rate of $53 million a year.

Base Closure and Realignment Timeline » May 13: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld publishes list of military installations to be closed or realigned. » Tomorrow: Base Closure and Realignment Commission reviews proposals to add bases to the list. » Tuesday: The commission votes on 12 proposals, including adding the Pearl Harbor shipyard to the list of facilities being considered for closure or realignment. If Pearl Harbor is added, a hearing will be held in Hawaii. » Sept. 8: The commission sends its findings to President Bush. » Sept. 23: President Bush submits his approval or disapproval of commission's recommendations. If Bush approves findings Congress has 45 legislative days to disapprove all recommendations. » Oct. 20: If Bush disapproves commission's recommendations, the commission has to submit revised recommendations to the president. » Nov. 7: Bush's deadline to submit revised recommendations of Congress.

It is a factor that the Pentagon acknowledged in its deliberations before it placed Portsmouth on its hit list on May 13.

However, Pearl Harbor, which was instrumental in rebuilding the nearly decimated Pacific Fleet in weeks after the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941, ranked higher because of its "strategic" location.

Retired four-star Adm. Thomas Fargo, who was head of all the U.S. forces in the Pacific until May, said from a strategic standpoint "it doesn't make sense" to close the 112-acre Pearl Harbor.

"Both today and even more so in the future, the preponderance of our vital national security interests are in Asia and the Pacific," said Fargo, who headed the Pacific Fleet for several years before taking over the U.S. Pacific Command.

"From a practical and operational standpoint, the focus of discussion is adding additional naval capability to the Pacific. Closing one of its two major U.S. shipyards in the Pacific would add to the cost to intermediate maintenance and impact our readiness and speed of response."

In responding to Principi's July 1 request for more information which led Pentagon planners to favor Pearl Harbor over Portsmouth, acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who also served for many years as civilian head of the Navy, said that the Oahu seaport is both critically located in the Pacific and is the home of 29 warships and submarines. Pearl Harbor has four drydocks able to service all types of naval vessels up to nuclear aircraft carriers, including, with modification, the USS Ronald Reagan.

There are no warships homeported at Portsmouth and its sole function has been to maintain the Navy's nuclear submarine fleet.

Tomorrow in a Senate hearing room, the Pentagon's Michael Wynne and Adm. Robert Willard, vice chief of naval operations, will have to defend its decision to close Portsmouth. Following the hearing Gov. Linda Lingle, Mayor Mufi Hannemann and Inouye will meet in private with several BRAC commissioners.

"The hope is try to get at least three commissioners on our side," said Maj. Gen. Bob Lee, who heads Hawaii's Army and Air National. He will be in Washington, D.C., when the matter comes up for a vote on Tuesday.

Lee was referring to the requirement that it will take seven of the nine BRAC commission members to add Pearl Harbor to the hit list when it takes up the matter.

Rep. Ed Case noted that "on paper the arguments would favor us," but he warned that it is "a very fluid situation."

During the past two decades where there have been four rounds of BRAC deliberations, Case said, Portsmouth has been on the list at least one time before.

About a decade ago, the Pentagon closed Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California because there was not enough work. Portsmouth also was on that list, but spared by another BRAC commission.

In May the Pentagon recommended closing 33 large bases and realigning the work of 800 other installations to generate $48.6 billion in long-term savings. The hardest hit region was New England, where job loss would be the highest in any region, with about 14,000 jobs.

Jim Tollefson, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii president and chief executive, has said that a coalition of business, labor and military leaders are ready to make a full court press if the commission decides to add Hawaii to the list. "We're prepared to go the whole nine yards to be successful."

Tollefson said the presentation to the panel will focus on Pearl Harbor's military importance when the commissioners come to the islands for a hearing.

"We feel that Pearl Harbor, being located in the middle of the Pacific and being homeport of the Navy in the Pacific, it makes great tactical and strategic sense to maintain a shipyard here," he said.

But Gov. Linda Lingle said she is confident that Pearl Harbor would be kept off the list.

"It's important to Hawaii's economy, obviously, but equally important to the nation's defense," she said. "As long as the decision is made on the basis of the country's security, I think we'll be fine."

The commission has until Sept. 8 to submit its recommendations to President Bush, who has two weeks to accept or reject the recommendations.

Ninety-seven installations were shut down in four rounds of closings since 1988, including Barbers Point Naval Air Station on Oahu.

As of now, Hawaii stands to lose 213 civilians at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service on Ford Island and another 65 civilians at Pearl Harbor's Human Resource Service Center .

But uncertainty faces many Pearl Harbor shipyard workers like Mario Fernandez, who after securing what he believed was a long-term job, got married, started a family and bought a home in Waikele.

Today, 50-year-old Fernandez, who has been at the shipyard for 22 years, faces the uncertainty that he may have to relocate to the mainland because he doesn't think he could find a comparable job in the private sector.