Lincoln Journal
Thursday, October 9, 2003

Letter: Group supports Air Force base

To the editor:

Last week's editorial says that citizens' groups should support Hanscom Air Force Base. We agree. In fact, we do support the base and always have, recognizing its special role in America's national security and its great value to the Massachusetts economy. It has always been a good neighbor.

As full-time advocates for operating the Hanscom Field civilian airport in an environmentally responsible manner, we appreciate the complexity of the issues and the potential for confusing "Hanscom" airport with "Hanscom" AFB. So it is understandable that the editors may have misinterpreted our position. Nonetheless, our support for the base has recently been reported in the Lowell Sun, the Boston Globe and the Community Newspapers. At last week's HATS meeting, we reiterated that support, and we were pleased to accept MassDevelopment's suggestion that we express our views directly to Pentagon officials at the appropriate time.

For the past few months, Save Our Heritage, ShhAir, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and our elected officials have been using the term "Hanscom Field civilian airport" in all our letters and public statements. We have done, and will continue to do, everything in our power to reinforce the distinction between Massport's expansion of corporate, commercial and cargo operations, which we oppose, and the Air Force's R&D activities, which we support.

Unfortunately, Massport has promoted confusion between the two facilities, in the hope of suppressing community opposition to FedEx: when Minute Man Park was designated as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, a Massport representative warned our selectmen that this would be viewed as synonymous with opposition to the base. In reality, as the National Trust has made abundantly clear - at the designation event, in statements to the press, and in a letter to Gov. Romney - its sole concern is with Massport's expansion of the civilian airport, and it fully supports retention of the Air Force base.

In short, the citizen's groups stand together with our local and state elected officials, area businesses, MassDevelopment, Gov. Romney, our congressional delegation, and Sen. Kennedy in support of Hanscom Air Force Base. We call upon Massport to eliminate any confusion that may exist concerning our position by publicly acknowledging this fact. Such a statement would be of real benefit to the cause of retaining the last Air Force base in New England.

Anna West Winter
Executive Director
Save Our Heritage

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