BostonHerald.com
Tuesday, November 6, 2001

Air Force secretary applauds Hanscom, but closing possible
by Jessica Heslam

Air Force Secretary James Roche visited Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford
yesterday, but offered no guarantees to the military and civilian workers
that the base wouldn't be closed if there's a new round of hearings.

``You're on the leading edge of what we need. Thank you very much for all
that you've done. We need you,'' said Roche, who was invited to Hanscom by
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a staunch Hanscom supporter who
accompanied Roche yesterday.

Although Roche praised the work done at the military base, he could not
promise that Hanscom would be spared should there be base closures.

Congress will decide in the next two weeks whether or not to begin a new
round of base closings. Earlier this year, President Bush called for a new
round of Base Realignment and Closure, or ``BRAC.''

When pressed about Hanscom's future, Roche said he would ``not prejudge any
outcome'' and noted that Kennedy makes a ``great case'' for the base.

Roche did say that ``when a community wants us to be there . . . then, in
fact, we take it into account. We also take into account that we have very
few Air Force bases in New England.''

Roche, who spoke along with Kennedy to about 750 military and civilian
workers, said the mission of the base - which is one of the Pentagon's top
research facilities - was integral to national defense.

Headquartered at Hanscom is the Electronic Systems Center, which buys and
manages the development of most of the Air Force's defense systems. The
base - also a center of Air Force science and research programs - employs
about 9,000 people.

Roche said he has ``great personal knowledge of what goes on here'' and
hailed Hanscom as a ``center of excellence'' for the Air Force's command,
control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.

The military is using systems developed at Hanscom to try to find and
destroy Al-Qaeda and Taliban targets, Roche said.

``It is the systems that have been sponsored by ESC that are going to be
some of the major keys in trying to get at this menace of global
terrorism,'' Roche said.

During the tour, Roche said the war is ``putting a stress'' on the Air Force
and military officials are trying to determine what it will take to continue
to fight steadily in what is expected to be a lengthy war.

``It's certainly putting a stress on it, especially the fact that we have to
defend our own bases and our own air space,'' Roche said. ``We are now
trying to gauge what it's going to take for us to be able to sustain this
over a very long period of time.''

Roche, said the Air Force is doing ``terribly well.''

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