THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503040069
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 290 lines
THE CELEBRATIONS had barely ended Tuesday evening when cautionary talk quickly erupted from every quarter of the city.
Only hours earlier the Department of Defense had recommended an expanded role for Oceana Naval Air Station by adding 163 F/A-18 Hornets - considered the future of Naval aviation - and positioning virtually all of the nation's F-14 Tomcats at the master jet base.
Until then, the best that community leaders had hoped to get during the realignment process was six squadrons of the S-3, an anti-submarine plane, and 1,200 personnel. The Hornets were expected to land at Marine Corps air stations at Cherry Point, N.C., with some reserve squadrons headed for Beaufort, S.C.
Suddenly, fortune had smiled on Oceana.
But as everyone associated with the nail-biting work of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission knows, the final say only comes when President Clinton signs the orders. The commission has just begun reviewing Defense Department recommendations.
``This is only round one,'' said a delighted but nervous Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf.
``This is only the first step,'' echoed Michael J. Barrett, chairman of the board of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
If anyone would know how tentative the feelings are about the latest round of base closings, it would be Oberndorf and Barrett. They and 23 other civic and community leaders served on a task force that is credited with ensuring that Oceana would not only survive but prosper in an era of a shrinking military.
Both know how close the city once came to finding Oceana's 11,000 employees and its $392 million payroll on a hit list after the 1993 BRAC hearings. Actually, the defense department never recommended a drastic change in Oceana's status. But after Jacksonville, Fla., residents complained in 1993 that nearby Cecil Field had taken too hard of a hit and that Oceana should bear some of the burden, BRAC relented and added Oceana to its target list.
It was, as Oberndorf put it, ``a wake up call.'' No sooner had it been announced than Hampton Roads' extensive military community, its Congressional delegation and business leaders agreed that action was needed immediately.
Second District Congressman Owen Pickett along with other members of the Hampton Roads Congressional delegation assembled a bipartisan civic and military committee for Virginia Beach with one overriding goal: give BRAC and the Defense Department the facts needed in 1995 to reach only one logical conclusion - keep Oceana thriving. A second committee was formed for Norfolk and its bases.
How the Virginia Beach task force made its case remains partly a mystery, largely because its members know their work is not done. But in interviews last week, a clearer picture emerged of the intensive, behind-the-scenes effort to preserve the economic engine that is Oceana and the many Hampton Roads bases that depend on it.
``I don't think there has ever been a local committee that was as high powered and as focused as this one was,'' said Oberndorf. ``When (Pickett) put together this committee, he chose the same people I would have chosen.''
Essential to the region's position was the close working relationship - the ``synergy,'' as committee members called it - that exists between Virginia Beach and the sprawling military community in Hampton Roads. Committee members wanted to make sure that BRAC knew how important that was at a time when the Defense Department was preaching ``jointness,'' its clumsy language for increased cooperation among the services in the post Cold War era.
``This was clearly a regional effort,'' Barrett said. ``After BRAC 1993, we found it extremely important to take a regional approach for Hampton Roads. We also learned from BRAC '93 that we had to manage the process so that Navy decision makers got the appropriate information.''
The committee focused intentionally on military value and cooperation among the Navy, Marines, Air Force and Army.
``The importance of those two concepts can't be overstated. BRAC must make its decision based on eight criteria and four of them relate to military value,'' Barrett said.
To ensure a back-track access, Pickett sought out influential former flag officers, each with an area of expertise. Richard M. Dunleavy, a retired vice admiral and Assistant Chief of Naval Operations, Air Warfare, joined the team, as did Joseph Donnell, a retired vice admiral and former commander of Naval Surface Forces, Atlantic, and Jerry L. Riendeau, a rear admiral and former commander of Tactical Wings Atlantic.
Once empaneled, the task force set out in both public and private forays to collect every relevant fact it could find. Almost everything seemed important. Travel times between bases in Norfolk and Virginia Beach were measured in minutes. Services at the regional medical facilities were considered. Information on the city's public school system, its growing transportation network and the fact that it has been a favorite retirement and vacation destination for generations of military families all came into play.
``Our approach was always behind the scenes,'' Barrett said. ``Person to person, keep talking to every key player we could, and always give the same message: that Hampton Roads was the low-cost, joint service option.''
By working with Oceana's planning department, Realtors and airport ordinances, the task force was able to assemble credible guarantees that no further encroachments by developers would take place on land under flight paths - long a contentious issue for Oceana commanders.
When BRAC mentioned that two elementary schools were in guarded airspace, the city moved quickly on that, too, announcing they would close the schools.
``We have one site in hand for Seatack Elementary School and about two-thirds of the site for Linkhorn Park School,'' Oberndorf said of efforts to find replacement sites. ``We took any comments we heard from BRAC in 1993 and made sure we followed up on them.
``We were convinced all along,'' Oberndorf added. ``We were not going to defend closure. We were going to defend the hard facts, that it was the best investment of the government's money to keep Oceana open.
``We have hangars, runways, schools, roads, the ability to provide jobs for the thousands of people who would be coming. We knew that we could control every inch of airspace between Oceana and Fentress Air Field so that there would be no conflict in training for pilots.''
Not only were civic amenities considered, but the base's own considerable presence was a factor. Long underused, Oceana nevertheless has the proper training facilities for the F-14 and A-6 crews still stationed there.
Oceana has flight simulators used to train several kinds of military pilots and plentiful hangar space. Lest BRAC conclude that Air Force training facilities would serve the community just as well, the committee made sure that BRAC would know about special needs of the Navy's air wing.
``The Navy has unique requirements for an auxiliary landing field,'' said retired Rear Adm. Riendeau. ``You need a place that is isolated and dark with lighting for a carrier deck on the runway, a place like Fentress. It's important in day, and more so at night.
``Also, naval aviators can only think left handed. The reason is you can only land on a carrier using a left-handed approach and some of the Air Force facilities use right-handed patterns.''
But perhaps most important of all to Oceana is its military neighbors. Local residents know how extensive the military presence is in Hampton Roads. The committee wanted to make sure BRAC would know as well.
Langley has the Air Combat Command. The Atlantic Fleet is based in Norfolk. Fort Monroe has the Training and Doctrine Command. All three play an instrumental role in defense, and all are in Hampton Roads.
``This may well be a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,'' said Arthur L. Collins, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, one of the key players in the committee's work.
And then there was the question of maintenance facilities. With many repair sites available, the committee sought to make a case that not only are they important for national defense, they're important for morale as well.
``When an air crewman gets off deployment and needs training, he can get it without leaving the community,'' Collins said. ``Same thing with maintenance. When they come back from a deployment, if the ship has to go some place else for repairs then that's like a back-to-back deployment for the crew.
``That's how the Portsmouth shipyard became important to the case,'' he said. ``It was tying all those things together that made the case for Hampton Roads. They're all part of the puzzle.''
The shipyard invited committee members to see its operation. The reason: because 1,000 of their employees live in Virginia Beach.
``The strengths we needed to make known to the services secretary had to do with how all of Virginia Beach's facilities, from Little Neck, Fort Story to Dam Neck, were related,'' said Collins.
``We had to show the relationship between the bases, their training, the quality of life of people here, and how it all fits into a pattern in Hampton Roads. It was through that very consistent, persistent message that all the service people got from a variety of sources over the last 15 months that has led to the success.''
Collins said the committee learned from mistakes made in 1993.
``We now know that from reviewing BRAC proceedings in 1993 that mistakes were made in the data,'' he said. ``This time, those mistakes were not made.''
Exactly what the mistakes were, he declined to say, arguing that disclosure would tip off other military-dependent communities that are fighting just as hard as Hampton Roads to keep their bases.
When BRAC looked at bases across the country, he said, it was searching for the ``military value'' of a facility.
``It is the primary ingredient in whether a base should stay,'' Collins said. ``It's the result of a number of things: water, sewer, family housing, schools, training facilities, even the square footage of runways.
``We wanted to make sure that the availability of the beneficial aspects and some of the more subjective things were conveyed up the line because it eventually goes into a computer.
``The gradations are very fine. The subtleties need to be appreciated. A tenth of a point here and there can make a difference. It's hard work. It's grinding stuff. That was the process we started 15 months ago. We got tremendous guidance from our congressmen and the mayor to make sure that the areas we explored were appropriate.
``There was a lot more to the process than may be evident. It was not meant to exclude the public or the press, but we had to exclude some people and you can't do that by holding press conferences.''
Sen. Charles Robb praised the hard work of the committee.
``There is no question that doing your homework always pays dividends,'' he said. ``We have learned through previous BRAC commission hearings that it's important to have all the relevant facts available to those who are making the decisions. Ultimately, the facts must prevail.'' MEMO: THE COMMITTEE
Members of Congressman Owen Pickett's BRAC 1995 Committee for
Virginia Beach:
Michael J. Barrett - chairman of the board, Hampton Roads Chamber of
Commerce
Capt. Milton Beach (retired Navy) - staff assistant to Sen. John
Warner
Jeffrey Breit - board member, Community Relations Council, United
Jewish Federation
Capt. Hugh Carroll II (retired Navy)
Arthur Collins - executive director, Hampton Roads Planning District
Commission
Del. Glenn R. Croshaw
Capt. James B. Dadson (retired Navy)
Vice Adm. Joseph Donnell (retired Navy) - former commander, Naval
Surface Forces, Atlantic QED Systems
Rear Adm. Richard M. Dunleavy (retired Navy) - assistant chief of
Naval Operations (Air Warfare)
Jeanne S. Evans - administrative assistant to Congressman Owen
Pickett
Jan Faircloth - administrative assistant to Congressman Norman
Sisisky
Rear Adm. Donald Felt (retired Navy) - member, Virginia Beach School
Board
Capt. Paul Hollandsworth (retired Navy) - president, Association of
Naval Aviation - Hampton Roads Squadron
Richard H. Kline - chairman, RK Chevrolet; former chairman, Virginia
Beach Industrial Development Authority
Norm Langrehr - Congressman Pickett's Office
Robert Matthias - assistant to the Virginia Beach city manager
John A. Moore
Mayor Meyera Oberndorf
Lt. Col. John Panneton (retired Marine Corps) - president, Navy
League of Tidewater
Col. Jim Pendergast (retired Marine Corps) - former public
information officer, Cherry Point, N.C.
Glen L. Rotella - director, Division 74, Machinists Union, Fort
Story, Oceana, Little Creek and Dam Neck
Rear Adm. Jerry L. Riendeau (retired Navy) - former commander,
Tactical Wings Atlantic
Bobbie Spear - regional representative for Sen. Charles Robb
Col. John T. Sprague (retired Army) - former commanding officer, Army
Transportation Center, Fort Story
Robert Stolle - director, Office of Base Retention and Defense
Adjustment
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
DEFENDING OCEANA
``This is only round one. . . . I don't think there has ever been a
local committee that was as high powered and as focused as this one
was.''
- Mayor Meyera Oberndorf
``After BRAC 1993, we found it extremely important to take a
regional approach for Hampton Roads.''
- Michael J. Barrett, chairman of the board of the Hampton Roads
Chamber of Commerce.
Second District Congressman Owen Pickett sought out influential
former flag officers - two vice admirals and a rear admiral - each
with an area of expertise, for the committee.
``This may well be a case where the whole is greater than the sum of
its parts.''
- Arthur L. Collins, executive director of the Hampton Roads
Planning District Commission
``We have learned through previous BRAC commission hearings that
it's important to have all the relevant facts available to those who
are making the decisions. Ultimately, the facts must prevail.''
- Sen. Charles Robb
Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
An F/A-18 Hornet sits on the flight line at Oceana Naval Air
Station. The Defense Department now says it will add 163 F/A-18
Hornets - considered the future of Naval aviation - to Oceana's
complement. And, virtually all of the nation's F-14 Tomcats - such
as pictured under the Hornet's right wing - would be positioned
here.
Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
Lest BRAC conclude that Air Force training facilities would serve
just as well, the committee made sure that BRAC would know about
special needs of the Navy's air wing - such as a facility on which
to practice carrier landings.
KEYWORDS: BRAC COMMISSION BASE CLOSINGS MILITARY BASES OCEANA by CNB