Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 12, 1993 TAG: 9306120137
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
"We're in war," Wilder said after he led off a daylong hearing by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.
Virginia would lose more than 50,000 jobs if all its bases on the commission's proposed hit list are closed, Wilder said.
The major Virginia bases under consideration for closing are Fort Lee in Petersburg, Fort Monroe in Hampton, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, the Norfolk Naval Aviation Depot and the Army's Vint Hill Farms near Warrenton.
He said he would urge Virginia's congressmen to oppose the final plan if it places "an undue burden" on the state.
"Furthermore, I am prepared to call on my colleagues - the governors of Texas and California and any other state that is asked to bear an undue hardship - to petition their sizable congressional delegations to do the same," he said.
Wilder used a more combative tone than U.S. Sens. John Warner and Charles Robb, who said they were confident Virginia bases would be largely spared from defense cuts required by the end of the Cold War.
"They're not only the best at what they do, they're in the right place," Robb told the commission. "I'm confident that the facts will speak for themselves."
Robb, D-Va., declined to endorse Wilder's strategy except to tell reporters, "We all want to work together on this."
Warner, however, praised the governor for speaking forcefully.
"Someone had to take the lead and the governor properly took that lead," said Warner, R-Va.
Commission members dismissed Wilder's threat to sabotage their final plan.
"I don't think Congress will respond unless we really louse it up in a major way," said Harry McPherson Jr., a Washington, D.C., lawyer on the commission.
Former New Jersey Rep. James Courter, the commission chairman, said Wilder may be the first governor to express what many are thinking.
"It doesn't bother us. We're part of a process," he said.
The commission will make its recommendations to President Clinton by July 1. Clinton must decide within two weeks whether to forward the plan to Congress. Unless Congress rejects the plan within 45 legislative days, it becomes law.
Supporters of the bases came in by the busloads to protest the proposed closings. More than 2,000 jammed Chrysler Hall for the hearing, which at times took on the atmosphere of a pep rally as the audience cheered and applauded speakers.
Some audience members waved red, white and blue signs reading, "Save America's 1st Shipyard." One held up a sign that pictured the U.S. Capitol and read, "Close Fort Pork."
Most of the speakers were politicians and base officials who emphasized the historical and continuing importance of the bases.
But commission members repeatedly questioned whether work done at the bases easily could be done elsewhere at less cost.
Courter said private yards such as Newport News Shipbuilding could handle repairs done by the nearly 10,000 workers at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
"It's an expensive yard to keep open because it's so big," Courter said.
by CNB