Officials defend base in Bangor Guard facility spared from BRAC list

BANGOR – Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, two KC-135 refueling planes from Bangor were among the first in the air to support east coast fighters defending against additional aggression.

Since then, the 101st Air Refueling Wing stationed at the Bangor Air National Guard Base has figured prominently in refueling missions in support of military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bangor facility processes more jet fuel than any other base in the country, according to a Maine Air National Guard official.

Officials believe the base’s strong performance likely played a major part in keeping it off the Base Realignment and Closure list, even though it scored lower on a military rating scale than bases included on the list proposed to be closed or scaled back.

Bangor’s low assessment score, which measures such areas as proximity to airspace where missions take place to pavement quality on the installation, has provided fuel for supporters of Niagara Falls Air Reserve Base in New York and other facilities that would be closed under the BRAC recommendations to question not only their inclusion on the list but the Maine facility’s being spared.

Officials at the Bangor base are reluctant to enter a war of words with the other bases. Instead, they choose to defend their exclusion from the BRAC list.

“Our people work above and beyond every single day,” Maj. Debbie Kelley, community manager for the 101st ARW, said Wednesday.

Col. Don McCormack, chief of the joint staff for the Maine National Guard, and others have said the Bangor base has many strategic strengths. They are also taking exception to the base’s low rating, saying the figures just don’t compute.

“We think that there were flaws in that and we think we can point those out and correct some of that,” McCormack said Wednesday.

Among the contentions are that some of the routes considered as part of the evaluation are outdated while newer routes, more frequently in use in light of Iraq and Afghanistan, were not part of the computations.

“They are using outdated charts that haven’t been updated or improved in the last 40 years,” Gov. John Baldacci said, noting that state officials are crunching the numbers to present to the BRAC commission to make sure the Bangor base remains off the list.

Officials in Maine find themselves playing dual roles, opposing the inclusion of three Maine military sites on the BRAC list – the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, the Brunswick Naval Air Station and the Defense Finance and Accounting Services center in Limestone – while defending Bangor’s exclusion.

Figuring strongly in the case for Bangor is its location, supporters say. The 101st ARW, along with Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, is the closest refueling base to air tracks that provide the quickest routes overseas. Reaching such routes would require a 25- to 30-minute flight from Bangor, compared to two or more hours from Niagara Falls, according to data from McCormack.

In recent years, the 101st ARW has scheduled flights as part of the transatlantic air bridge support for military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan from six northeast bases and coordinated as many as 3,500 flights in a year with a minimal crew of a dozen people, Kelley said. The base is operational 24 hours a day. It’s also been instrumental in a longer running Northeast Tanker Task Force providing refueling services.

The base has also handled a dramatic increase in transient planes – those not assigned to the base – that require fuel, McCormack said. Before Sept. 11, the base might have seen 300 of them a year. Last year, 1,848 transient planes refueled at the base.

With the increased activity, officials say it’s not surprising that the 101st ARW receives and processes more jet fuel than any of its counterparts.

The Bangor base “has historically processed more jet fuel than any other base in the country, active, guard or reserves,” McCormack said.

There are other benefits to Bangor. Kelley said that not only does the Bangor guard base have access to a long runway, about 11,440 feet and considered an alternative for the space shuttle, but also there isn’t as much air traffic as might be found in larger municipalities.

“Bangor air space is pretty open,” she said.

The base has been an economic boon to the region. It employs about 900 people, two-thirds of them part time and the rest full time, Kelley said. Of the 650 part-timers, 250 have been placed on mobilized status since Sept. 11, 2001.

Under the BRAC proposal, Bangor would gain as many as 240 military and civilian jobs. Eight KC-135 planes from Niagara Falls would be transferred to Bangor where they would replace older model planes. Additionally, the 101st Air Refueling Wing would receive four other KC-135s from two other bases, one in Alabama and one in Mississippi.

The Bangor base has strong ties with the region. The people on the base live here and shop here. The base joined forces with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department to purchase a bomb-sniffing dog, something county officials said they couldn’t have done on their own.

The ties are even stronger with Bangor International Airport, which depends on the air guard for fire services and for snow removal equipment, necessary to keep the airport running in the winter months.

“They’re an important partner for us,” BIA Director Rebecca Hupp said. “Certainly, we think they’re an important asset to the community and to the region as a whole.”

The guard base has an annual economic impact of about $78 million from salaries at the base to the snow removal at Bangor International Airport to the construction work that has been done at the guard base, according to McCormack, whose figures date to 2003. Another $2 million is generated through the tanker task force operations.

Baldacci said the state has a strong case for the Bangor Air National Guard Base and, along with the Maine congressional delegation, intends to present new information to the BRAC committee in the weeks to come, reaffirming the justification for keeping Bangor off the list.

“We’re going to make a very forceful reinforcement of the case to support the Pentagon’s case to keep Bangor open,” Baldacci said Wednesday afternoon.