Boston Globe -- NorthWest & West sections
Thursday, December 16, 2004

Kennedy, Romney step up effort to save Hanscom

By Davis Bushnell, Globe Correspondent

Despite a report that a state-backed, $410 million expansion plan for
Hanscom Air Force Base won't help the facility remain open, supporters
asserted this week the fight to save the 840-acre Bedford base is picking up
speed.

The emphasis remains on promoting the military value of the air base, which
is a center of electronic warfare research-and-development activities, said
the proponents, who are leadership committee members of the Massachusetts
Defense Technology Initiative.

Headed by Democratic US Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Republican Governor
Mitt Romney, the initiative is made up of the state's congressional
delegation and corporate and academic leaders. The group was formed to try
to save Hanscom and the Army's Soldier Systems Center in Natick.

Kennedy and Romney, their aides said, will continue to meet with Defense
Department officials and lawmakers in Washington to further bolster the case
for keeping open the Hanscom base and the Natick facility.

The officials' latest comments came in reaction to a Boston Globe article
last Friday about a letter sent two months ago by a deputy undersecretary of
defense, Raymond F. DuBois, to US Representative Duncan Hunter, the
California Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee.

In the letter, DuBois said the Pentagon would not consider the expansion
proposals for Hanscom and other bases when deciding whether to keep them
open.

Christopher Anderson, who is president of the defense technology initiative
and heads the Massachusetts High Technology Council, dismissed DuBois's
remarks as ''a boilerplate response to a member of Congress. Our plan is way
ahead of other states, a real proposal that has drawn the attention of
lawmakers from across the country."

Moreover, senior Air Force officials have told members of the defense
technology initiative they ''are receptive" to the state's plan for Hanscom,
Anderson asserted, adding that the military is forbidden from making any
public comments for or against a base closing.

The state has offered to fund $241 million of $410 million in infrastructure
improvements that would be needed to expand the Hanscom base, perhaps to
include another military component.

US Representative Martin Meehan, Democrat of Lowell, who also is an Armed
Services Committee member, and David Smith, a Kennedy spokesman, said DuBois
was accurate in saying that ''military value" is the key factor in
base-closure deliberations.

Hanscom and the Army's Natick Laboratories, which specialize in food and
apparel research, meet this requirement, Meehan and Smith said.

''Hanscom offers both essential and unique military value," Meehan said in a
statement released on Monday. ''I believe that value will only increase
under an expansion plan. So, I think it's important to continue to make the
case for Hanscom's growth potential."

Smith said, ''The Department of Defense has agreed that military value is
central" to considerations of the federal Base Realignment and Closure
Commission.

Indeed, the case for the Hanscom base is compelling because it is surrounded
by ''a technology cluster" of companies and colleges and universities ''that
is on the leading edge of technology" for the nation's defense, said Paul
Gudonis, chief executive of Centra Software Inc. of Lexington, and a member
of the defense technology initiative's leadership committee. Centra supplies
online training programs for commercial and military applications.

The state's Hanscom expansion plans ''are concrete, anything but a
pie-in-the-sky proposal," said Sara Mattes, a Lincoln selectwoman and
chairwoman of the Hanscom Area Towns Committee, made up of selectmen from
Bedford, Concord, Lexington, and Lincoln, which adjoin the air base. ''So,
we remain optimistic" that the case for Hanscom will prevail, Mattes said.

The Hanscom base currently has 4,200 military personnel and civilian
workers, and awards more than $950 million in contracts each year to Bay
State companies and institutions.

Kennedy's and Romney's efforts are being played out against a backdrop of
intense politicking from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill, as the
time nears for members of the federal base closing commission to be
appointed. Nine members are expected to be named by the end of next month.

In May, the commission will begin considering base closings suggested by
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. Four months later, the commission
will submit base-closure recommendations to President Bush.

Twenty-five percent of the nation's military installations are in danger of
being closed, according to the Defense Department.

The campaign to keep Hanscom Air Force Base and the Army's Natick facility
off the closure list is relying heavily on two high-powered Washington
lobbyists, Ronald R. Fogelman, a retired general and a former Air Force
chief of staff, and former US senator Alan Dixon of Illinois.

© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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