By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

BRUNSWICK – Brunswick Naval Air Station, Maine’s home to Navy fliers for more than half a century, will close.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission voted 7-2 Wednesday to dismantle the local base, saying too much money would be saved by closure to preserve the Pentagon’s last active-duty airfield in the Northeast.

Minutes later, the commission voted 7-1 to preserve Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, setting off a celebration in Kittery.

In Brunswick, emotions ranged from bitterness to sadness to resignation.

“We’ll move on,” Town Manager Donald Gerrish said moments after the decision was made. “Brunswick will survive.”

The town will be hobbled, though.

The closure will eventually send away about 2,500 full-time sailors. About 720 civilians will lose their jobs, said Navy leaders.

“How in the world can we come back from this?” asked Richard Tetrev, chairman of the local task force that has fought for the base for the past two years.

The task force is done, he said.

“It’s over.”

The announcement came at about 11 a.m., following a lightning-fast series of votes by the commission. The nine-member group took less than 90 minutes to handle all of the Army bases on its agenda. It then moved on to the Navy.

Commissioner Harold Gehman, one of the two commissioners who never visited Brunswick during the closure process, led the charge against the local base.

Rather than simply reducing the personnel at the base, as the Pentagon had suggested, closure would save twice as much money, Gehman said. And the savings could be earned twice as fast.

The discussion took less than 15 minutes. Only commissioners James Bilbray and Philip Coyle voted against the closure.

When commission Chairman Anthony Principi joined the closure crowd, Tetrev knew Brunswick was doomed, he said.

He called the decision “unnecessary, unwise and dangerous.”

Tetrev and other local experts have argued that Brunswick’s location near the North Atlantic shipping lanes was too valuable to sacrifice. It’s an argument that Commissioner Gehman acknowledged, but dismissed.

“The evidence is only going to come from the next terrorist attack,” said Tetrev, the base’s former second-in-command.

Tetrev suggested that the commission’s decision was the result of political “horse-trading.”

He also felt insulted by the commissioners, who were encouraging when they visited this summer.

“There was lots of happy talk,” he said.

However, Brunswick won’t shrink right away, nor is the formal closure process finished.

By law, the commission is charged with submitting a completed list of proposed closures and realignments to the president by Sept. 8, who can either accept or reject the list.

However, President Bush has vowed to accept the list, whatever its shape. Once he forwards it to Congress, it then has 45 days to reject the list in its entirety.

If it does nothing, the list becomes law.

However, Wednesday’s decision is expected to be final.

If Maine’s delegation wishes to oppose the list, the local task force will help, Tetrev said. Otherwise, his group is finished.

Not everyone is convinced, though.

Louise Van Thorpe, the widow of a Navy pilot from Auburn and a member of the task force, said she isn’t ready to surrender.

“I won’t give up until they stamp the paper,” she said.

Capt. George Womack, who commands the local base, said Brunswick’s closure will likely take three to five years.

Nothing is likely to happen for the first two years, as needed construction begins at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, where Brunswick’s five P-3 Orion squadrons would be sent.

Once the Florida base is ready, the local groups will be sent down in a staggered pattern.

Womack and Capt. Mike Hewitt, who commands the base’s squadrons, said they hope the transition will be “graceful.”

Meanwhile, the town plans to get ready for the losses and the gains.

A local reuse authority will be created to sort out the thorny issues of who may take ownership of the 3,220-acre base.

Those talks would focus on using the aircraft facilities, the two runways and about 1,500 housing units.

The town will also have to figure out how its schools will be affected. One in six students in Brunswick schools has Navy ties.

“We will be moving very quickly,” Town Manager Donald Gerrish said.

However, some people won’t move on as fast.

The decision stunned Ralph Dean, who testified for Brunswick in Washington two weeks ago.

A retired Navy pilot, Dean worked for two years to gather information for Brunswick’s defense. He wrote white papers and gathered facts and figures.

“They used none of our data,” he said. “They just didn’t hear us. I’m sorry for the Navy. I’m sorry for the nation.”

Dean second-guessed himself Wednesday. Some other argument needed to be made. Some other story needed to be shared, he said.

“I believe in my heart in the value of the naval air station and I always will,” he said.