BRAC Could Spare Groton
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2004—The group working to keep the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn., off the government list for closure took another step forward Wednesday, meeting with lawmakers and Defense officials to talk strategy for the upcoming Base Realignment and Closure battle slated to take place next year.
“You’ve got to prepare for the worst, hope for the best,” said Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). “That’s what we’ve done over the years on these issues.”
Dodd said he hoped that the picture would become clearer by as early as December. The current deadline for the Pentagon to produce the list of possible military closures is May 16, 2005.
Currently, the sub base is the only installation in Connecticut threatened with realignment or closure. From the meetings at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, representatives from the Subase Realignment Coalition, led by chairman John Markowicz, established various “points of action” that can be taken to make the base a more attractive asset to the Navy of the future.
The first step would be to open use of the base to as many wings of the military as possible, designating it as a point of “joint operations.” The coalition is looking at the possibility of moving two Army units from the Marine base in New Haven to the Groton facility.
Likewise, they are working with Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s office on the possibility of allowing more access for National Guard units to train there. The base currently serves as a training ground for Naval Reservists.
The existing units at the base could be designated as joint operations. These include a recently converted Trident submarine used by Special Forces from different branches of the military, said Markowicz.
“We’re already ‘joint,’” he said. “We’re just not as ‘joint’ as a lot of people would like us to be and we’re working on that.”
Another option considered by the coalition was to gain the base a special designation under the Department of Homeland Security.
“We know that the Southeast Connecticut area is a high-risk area for a variety of reasons,” said Rep. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.). “So it would become a regional homeland security.emergency operations center at the upper base.”
Any strategy developed faces a common problem: neither Connecticut lawmakers nor members of the coalition can be certain at this point what the Navy is looking for in a successfully operating base.
“We have requested the data calls repeatedly,” said Simmons, referring to a survey of about 700 questions the Navy uses to rate the viability of any given base. “They have not released the data calls,” but the Navy may release the information sometime next year, he said.
The threat of closure is not new to the Groton base. It has survived at least four attempts to shut it down over the past two decades. In 1993, the coalition scored a reversal of the government’s decision to shut it down under the original 1990 legislation.
The sub base’s closure could carry a severe economic impact, said Markowicz.
“It can be as high as $2.5 billion if you add to that the possibility that if the base closes, [Electric Boat] leaves town,” said Markowicz. “We hope we don’t get nicked.”
The resulting loss of business related to the base, its personnel, employees and subcontractors – who do an estimated $277 million worth of business in the area – would cause a “ripple effect” in the area that would be almost indeterminable, said Tony Sheridan, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut..
“The quality of the Navy’s involvement in the community suffers,” he said. “That’s a huge loss. It’s a loss that cannot be measured monetarily.”
