Boston Globe NorthWest
May 8, 2003

Hanscom base-closing battle planned
Money being sought to hire key lobbyists

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

BEDFORD -- The "Save Hanscom Air Force Base" banner is flying again, amid concerns of federal, state, and municipal officials that the 840-acre base, a research-and-development and economic engine for the region, could be targeted by a federal commission for closure or realignment in 2005.

Home of the Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom narrowly escaped being shuttered in 1995, and received another reprieve in 2001, when two base-closure bills in Congress didn't go anywhere.

Hanscom is the last active-duty Air Force base in New England. [!! -- mpa] Two other large military installations in Massachusetts, Fort Devens in Ayer and South Weymouth Naval Air Station, were closed in 1996 and 1997, respectively.

There are new indications, public officials say, that the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC), supported strongly by the Defense Department, will recommend a massive base restructuring plan to the president in the fall of 2005.

To try to head off Hanscom's being put on the closure or realignment list, state officials and the Massachusetts congressional delegation are appealing for $1 million in private funds to help pay for heavy-hitting lobbyists like Ronald R. Fogleman, a retired Air Force general, and Alan Dixon, a former US senator from Illinois, who was the base commission's chairman in 1995.

MassDevelopment, the state's economic development agency and redeveloper of the old Fort Devens complex, is coordinating lobbying efforts. It sponsored a "Build Hanscom Alliance" meeting last Friday at the Renaissance Bedford Hotel. Speakers included Senator Edward M. Kennedy; Governor Mitt Romney; Representative Marty Meehan, a Democrat from Lowell; and Representative Edward Markey, a Democrat from Malden.

Meanwhile, the Woburn-based North Suburban Chamber of Commerce, which has long fought for Hanscom's survival, is urging its more than 400 members to bombard Washington with pro-Hanscom communications and to pony up money for lobbying efforts, said George Judge, the chamber's new president and a former Burlington selectman.

The chamber's Military Affairs Council is now headed by Barbara Patzner, airport director of Hanscom Field, which is next to the Air Force base.

The challenge, according to Judge and others, will be to get a large number of people on the Hanscom bandwagon for actions that will be taken by the base commission two years from now.

Hanscom's status as a premier electronic warfare center is indeed threatened, Michael Hogan, chief executive of MassDevelopment, told the Friday gathering.

"[Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld is calling this the 'mother' of BRACs. And some are saying that there is 25 percent excess capacity," in terms of the number of current military installations, Hogan said.

Since the first commission was formed in 1988, 98 major bases have been closed and 304 others have been either closed or realigned.

"Hanscom has a vital technology mission," Meehan said. "We have to dissuade the Pentagon from the notion that the base could be moved somewhere else like so many tanks."

Also, the region's economy would take a nosedive if Hanscom was closed or folded into other military posts, Meehan and others noted.

Hanscom funnels $3.2 billion a year in contracts to small and large companies. The base has an annual payroll of $572 million and supports an estimated 26,000 jobs. There are 1,583 civilian employees and 1,400 active-duty military personnel at Hanscom.

MassDevelopment, said Hogan, is earmarking $1 million that was previously authorized by the Legislature and $500,000 of its own funds for lobbying efforts. The campaign will emphasize Hanscom's key role in producing electronic-surveillance and intelligence-gathering systems that proved effective in both the Persian Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"But we need to raise an additional $1 million," Hogan said.

Dixon, the former base commission chairman and a MassDevelopment consultant, said, "Companies need to be approached for funds because a lot of money is required to prepare for the BRAC process. And 85 percent of the battle is won before the [closure] list is prepared."

Judge said he thinks a talk to be given to the North Suburban Chamber on June 12 by Lieutenant General Bill Looney, commander of the Electronics Systems Center at Hanscom, will do a lot to marshal renewed regional support for the air base, which was built in 1941 to train World War II fliers.

Looney will speak to chamber members from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Renaissance Bedford Hotel.

In the end, "we'll win this one together," Romney predicted.

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