Base-closing panel’s makeup worries N.E.

PORTLAND – The absence of a New Englander on the commission named to review the Pentagon’s list of proposed base closings has left the region without the leverage those pushing to keep bases alive fear they need.

The nine-member panel announced this week includes commissioners from California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

While they bring a spectrum of experience and perspective, many argue that being unfamiliar with New England could be detrimental to the decisions they make.

“The law is a very good means of making the nation swallow a bitter pill without blaming anybody … but we don’t know that we have commissioners who know the area,” said William McDonough, a retired Navy captain with Save Our Shipyard, which has lobbied for months to save Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld must give a list of bases the Pentagon wants to close to the commission by May. The commissioners then review – and can change – the list before passing along final recommendations to President Bush.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Brunswick Naval Air Station in Maine and the Naval Submarine Base in Connecticut, as well as Hanscom Air Force Base and Natick Labs in Massachusetts, have been mentioned as possible targets for closure.

But without a commissioner intimately familiar with those bases, the impact they have on surrounding communities and their importance in homeland defense missions, military analysts argue mistakes could be made in this year’s closings.

“The commissioners will have a greater affinity for the places they know than for the places they don’t,” said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute who has predicted New England to fare poorly. “It does further stack the deck.”

State officials and congressional leaders of both parties from Maine to Connecticut have spent months pushing for a New Englander to be appointed to the commission with hopes such a presence would stem base closures in the region.

Without such a representative, they feared efforts to save the region’s military bases could fall on deaf ears once the Pentagon releases its list.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who sits on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, said the nominations were disappointing.

The Maine and New Hampshire delegations had nominated retired Lt. Gen. Robert Winglass and former congressman David Emery to represent the region.

The commissioners Bush nominated Tuesday include:

. Anthony Principi of California, a former Veterans Affairs secretary.

. James H. Bilbray of Nevada, a former Army reservist and a former congressman who served on international relations, armed services and intelligence committees.

. Philip Coyle of California, a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information and a former assistant defense secretary.

. Harold W. Gehman Jr. of Virginia, a retired Navy admiral and former NATO supreme allied commander.

. James V. Hansen of Utah, a Navy veteran and former congressman who served on the armed services committee.

. James T. Hill of Florida, a retired Army general and former combat commander of the U.S. Southern Command.

. Claude M. Kicklighter of Georgia, a retired Army lieutenant general and the assistant secretary for policy and planning at the Veterans Affairs Department.

. Samuel Knox Skinner of Illinois, a former Army reservist and one-time chief of staff and secretary of transportation under President George H.W. Bush.

. Sue Ellen Turner of Texas, a retired Air Force brigadier general who is a member of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Collins plans to question each during their confirmation hearings about the importance of geographic diversity among bases to ensure they are aware of the disadvantage leaving specific areas without a military presence would pose.

“It just seems insensitive of the administration to ignore concerns about geographic representation given how high the stakes are,” Collins said.