Bucking Pentagon, panel votes to spare two New England bases

WASHINGTON — Overruling the Pentagon on two of its biggest requests, a commission reviewing base closings voted to keep open a shipyard and a submarine base in New England that military planners wanted to shut down.

The panel also spared three other major facilities, in Texas, California and Louisiana, against the Pentagon's wishes.

But it was New England that got arguably the biggest victories of the day: the commission voted to save two of the Navy's oldest facilities — the Portsmouth shipyard at Kittery, Maine, and Submarine Base New London in Connecticut. Together, the bases are considered economic engines of their region and elected officials from Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut lobbied intently for months to save them.

"Yahoo!" said Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. "Submarine base New London lives, and I think that it will live forever."

The commission did, however, decide to close Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine, rather than drastically reduce forces there as the Pentagon wanted. Commissioners argued that savings could be realized more quickly if it was shut down altogether.

Over the past four months, the nine-member panel has expressed worries that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's proposal would leave the Northeast unprotected.

"If we close New London down, we will never get it back," the commission's chairman, Anthony Principi, said Wednesday. "I think it would be a tragic mistake, a tragic loss for this nation."

But the decisions to spare both the submarine base and the shipyard were somewhat surprising. Lobbyists and some lawmakers had privately speculated that the panel would save one base but scrap the other.

In the end, the panel sided with community groups and lawmakers from the Northeast. Analysts have said closing both the shipyard and the submarine base would devastate the economy along the coast from Maine to Rhode Island. Loss of the submarine base would have cost about 8,000 jobs while the shipyard would have cost 4,000 jobs, plus many more at businesses that depend on the bases.

"This is a sweet victory," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who was among the Congress members, former President Carter and a dozen admirals who urged the commission to save the Connecticut base.

In other reversals, the commission kept open, rather than closed Naval Support Activity Corona in California, the Red River Army Depot in Texas and Naval Support Activity in New Orleans.