While Pat Robertson was riling up a few people this week from his broadcast headquarters in Virginia Beach, the big story, locally, was the BRAC's (Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission) decision about the fate of Oceana Naval Base and its squadron of jet fighters in Virginia Beach. The commission voted on Wednesday to keep Oceana open (for now) but gave some hefty and expensive conditions that state and local officials must satisfy. The BRAC committee gave until the end of March 2006 to complete its demands or face losing the base to Florida. Florida's Governor Jeb Bush also attended the meeting and has been lobbying for Cecil Field, a former Navy base in Jacksonville, to be the new home for the squadron of fighter jet planes.
But the crushing blow came when the panel said that Oceana should be ultimately phased out by the Pentagon.
Commission chairman Anthony J. Principi said, “It is also the sense of the commission that the future of naval aviation is not Naval Air Station Oceana.”
Earlier, Virginia already lost Fort Monroe (in nearby Hampton, VA) as the BRAC panel voted unanimously to close that base. 1,500 jobs will be lost from that vote. If Oceana is no longer a long term option of the military, then 12,000 jobs will be gone. Obviously, the local economy would suffer.
What has happened is that Virginia Beach developed and allowed new businesses and homes to be built so close to Oceana that it has now become a safety issue for the Navy. Now the blame game is being played from the citizens to city council to state senators to the Governor up to Sen. John Warner (R-VA), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and our big booster of this region.
Eveyone is accountable for this fiasco. Had we, the citizens (including myself), known it would come to this, maybe it would be a different story. Too little, too late. Now the base, which left a lasting impression on me about the military growing up, will probably fade into the sunset. It's too late to finger point.
Finally, this just may have been a prelude to a battle between two possible future presidential candidates - Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) and Gov. Mark Warner (D-VA).
Source: Pilot Online/Hampton Roads.com
Article comments
1 - Silas Kain
Hmmm. Where are the illustrious Republican Senators from Virginia? Isn't John Warner chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee?
2 - Tube
It's pretty much a foregone conclusion.
3 - Silas Kain
Forgive my ignorance here. Is there anyone from this area who can explain to me how it is that so much commercial development has been done in this area? I'd like to know who the principals are in this development. Are they American financiers? Oceana is only a couple of hundred miles out of Washington and pretty much sits on lower Chesapeake Bay. How much security does Fort Story provide? Wouldn't the loss of 12,000 jobs in this area weaken security and emergency preparedness not to mention have a devastating effect on the economy? And, finally, where does the Office of Homeland Security come in? Shouldn't they have some kind of input?
4 - Tube
Basically, the commission is concerned about too much residential development. City council pretty much ignored the Navy's recommendations and allowed all of this residential growth. As a result, it has now come back to bite us in the ass. Strategically, it is better to keep the base in Oceana. But the commission was pretty adamant about the conditions and also recommended that Oceana was not the future of naval aviation. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't
5 - Silas Kain
So, Tube, my question is who stood to make the most money in all these developments? Surely these dollars did not make their way in an equitable distribution. The matter smells of political patronage. Looking at this from a strictly strategic point of view, I can't see how closing down Oceana is good for national defense. What are they going to do with the property in the end? Turn it over to the state? Build a Wal-Mart? Create a Christian theme park?
6 - RJ
A lot of bases in the NE US are being closed in favor of bases in the South and the West.
This is due to many different circumstances. One of them is "proximity to operations."
IOW, a base in the NE of the US is close to...Canada (no threat) and Western Europe (no threat).
Bases in the West are closer to the Pacific (Red China, North Korea). And Bases in the South are closer to Latin America (Cuba, FARC).
Of course, other reasons play a role as well...
7 - Tube
Bottom line is our city council screwed up. Silas, you have some good questions, some of which I don't know the answer. I hadn't been keeping up with all of the developments and city council hearings. Even with Oceana open, many college grads leave this area and go to Northern Virginia. The job market here sucks and the city is trying to make it more attractive for people to move here. Whatever they do with Oceana, they need to attract jobs and we are losing out.