BRUNSWICK – For one last time, leaders in Brunswick will argue that America is safer with the local base than without it.
“It’s like the closing arguments of a trial,” said Richard Tetrev, chairman of the Brunswick Naval Air Station Task Force. “This is it.”
On Wednesday, Tetrev will join members of Maine’s congressional delegation and Gov. John Baldacci in Washington for testimony before the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
The group will be given one hour.
“We think we have a compelling case,” said retired Rear Adm. Harry Rich, who plans to recap the Pentagon’s own objections to closing the base.
The commission scheduled the hearing last month, after voting to add the base to its closure list.
“When the base was added, my optimism increased,” said Rich, who once commanded every P-3 Orion squadron on the East Coast. After all, the notion of closing Brunswick was “so easy to defeat,” he said.
“But my stress level went up,” he said. The addition meant more speeches, more analysis and more travel.
Besides, nothing is certain. The base could close. It could also shrink, which the Pentagon recommended in May.
“I plan to drive a stake through realignment and kill it,” Rich said Monday.
The base’s defense has focused on its military value and strategic importance. It is the Pentagon’s last fully operational, active-duty airfield in the Northeast.
It also serves as an economic engine, which will be the topic of testimony by Baldacci and Rep. Tom Allen. Other speakers will include retired Navy Capt. Ralph Dean and Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.
Tetrev and others, including Brunswick Town Manager Donald Gerrish, are expected to be sworn in and available in case commissioners have questions.
The commission is expected to decide the fate of all proposed bases at the end of the month. Beginning on Aug. 23, the commission is expected to discuss and vote upon each base individually. The process could take two or three days.
Until then, there will be nothing more for base supporters to do.
Kidding only a little, Rich had his own suggestion for people to lend a hand.
“Go to church every day and pray,” he said.
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