Hanscom supporters fear closure of air base
Last active N.E. Air Force base may be on list

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent, 9/16/2001

BEDFORD - Regional business leaders and state officials are gearing up to
marshal support for Hanscom Air Force Base as Congress considers two bills
that would shutter varying numbers of military installations nationwide.

According to published reports, the House bill would target as many as half
of the country's military bases for closure, while the Senate version would
consider all bases for closings.

In the last 13 years, 97 bases have been closed in the United States in
economy moves, the Pentagon says. Hanscom narrowly escaped closure in 1995.
The Fort Devens Army base in Ayer was closed in 1996 and the South Weymouth
Naval Air Station a year later.

Now Hanscom, which began as a training base for World War II fliers and
evolved into a center for highly advanced electronic warfare systems, is the
last active-duty Air Force base in New England.

Opened in 1941 and named for a local aviator, Laurence Gerald Hanscom, who
died in a plane crash the same year, the base funnels billions of contract
dollars into the economy every year.

''We don't know whether Hanscom will be targeted, but our military affairs
council is putting together a strategic plan to keep Hanscom open,'' said
James McCurdy, executive director of the Woburn-based North Suburban Chamber
of Commerce.

''Surveillance and intelligence gathering are Hanscom's mission, which is
even more critical today,'' added McCurdy, referring to Tuesday's terrorist
attacks in New York City and Washington.

Hanscom spokesman Kevin Gilmartin said, ''Our mission continues to grow in
importance in this information age.''

Hanscom's 840 acres cover portions of Bedford, Concord, Lincoln, and
Lexington.

James Henderson, who directed the North Suburban Chamber's successful Team
Hanscom lobbying effort six years ago, said Hanscom always has to be on
guard against closure.

''Now's the time for planning to begin. If you wait until legislation
passes, it's too late,'' he said.

Henderson is vice chairman of ACS Defense Inc. of Dallas, a defense
contractor. He is based in Burlington.

If legislation were passed, a federal base realignment and closure
commission would be convened. It makes its recommendations on base closings
to the president.

''Everybody's waiting to see what happens in Washington'' concerning
possible base closings, said Chris Kealey, spokesman for MassDevelopment,
the state's economic development agency, which has been involved since 1996
in converting Fort Devens into a business center.

At the urging of Michael Hogan, the agency's chief executive, Acting
Governor Jane M. Swift put the Hanscom issue on the Aug. 27 agenda of the
New England Governors' Conference, Kealey said.

Hogan was out of town last week and unavailable for comment.

''We want to rally the state's business community around keeping Hanscom
open. There is competition from other places like Texas - Kelly Air Force
Base, for example - that would like to pick off Hanscom's contracts and
services,'' Kealey said.

He said MassDevelopment, in conjunction with the North Suburban Chamber,
will spearhead promotions that highlight Hanscom's economic impact on the
region.

''If Hanscom were a commercial enterprise, it would be the ninth-largest
business and the 12th-largest employer in Massachusetts,'' he said, noting
that the Air Force base has about 3,000 active-duty military personnel and
civilian workers.

The base is also the source of annual contracts worth about $3.3 billion,
involving large defense contractors such as Lexington-based Raytheon Co.,
Mitre Corp. of Bedford, and Lincoln Laboratory, as well as a host of small
companies, he said.

Home of the Electronics Systems Center (part of the Air Force Materiel
Command in Ohio), Hanscom, using computers and radar, created the North
American air defense system in the mid-1950s. Nearly 40 years later, during
the Persian Gulf War, its target-attack radar and airborne warning systems
were used to pinpoint locations of Iraqi aircraft.

Since 1958, Hanscom has had a close working relationship with Mitre, which
was spun off from Lincoln Lab, becoming the Air Force's Bedford-based
systems engineering contractor.

''The Electronics Systems Center is our oldest and largest government
sponsor,'' Mitre spokesman Alan Shoemaker said. Mitre has about 1,900
employees in Bedford.

This story ran on page W3 of the Boston Globe on 9/16/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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