BRAC STRATEGY

The decision this week to add Brunswick Naval Air Station to the list of bases being considered for closure was more bad news for Maine, adding the potential of another 800 lost jobs to the 4,000 already at risk. If there was a positive aspect to the news, it was that the commission seems to understand what the Pentagon’s cuts are doing to this region.

The chairman of the Base Realignment and Closure commission, Anthony Principi, looked over Defense Department plans that would continue the trend of closing major bases in the Northeast and wondered whether the military was virtually abandoning this part of the country. That could be a mistake, he said, because, “I think it’s important for our nation that our military and our society are close together. I think that’s important for democracy. That’s important for recruiting. That’s important for retention. It’s important for building support for our engagements overseas.”

His comments, unfortunately, came shortly after he voted to add Brunswick to the closure list. The vote to shift the base from being considered for realignment – in this case, meaning it would lose its airplanes but maintain its airfield – to closure was 8-1.

Nevertheless, his observations are right. A disconnection between society and the military poses problems for both, and removing the military from a region of the country virtually guarantees a disconnection. This issue did not begin with the latest BRAC round. Since the first round in 1988, New England’s active-duty personnel dropped from 30,600 to 12,700.

The Defense Department had not wanted to close Brunswick entirely because of its strategic location, a point the Maine delegation used to argue that it should remain fully open. It isn’t known whether commission members found this unpersuasive or simply don’t like the idea of realignment, which leaves the base in limbo for the military and economically for the community, and will be seen in later votes. But the decision this week means Brunswick will get another visit from the commission, scheduled for Tuesday, and another formal hearing, to be held Aug. 10 in Washington, D.C.

Though commissioners said adding a base to the list was not necessarily a step toward closure but a chance to study it further, had they accepted the delegation’s first round of testimony, they could have left Brunswick as realigned and then removed it entirely next month when they have the opportunity to cut bases they think the Pentagon improperly included. The fact that it didn’t do that suggests strongly that the delegation needs a revised strategy for making its case.

Chairman Principi has offered one piece of that strategy: the observation that Brunswick is needed not only for security but for the military’s own good.