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"Back at the Gap"
Major General Frank H. Smoker,
Jr. (USAF, Retired)
Group convinces
commission not to close Gap
38th in a
series
In
continuing the history of the effect BRAC 1995 had on
Fort Indiantown Gap, we held a meeting of the Chamber’s
Military Affairs Committee on March 9.
We invited a wide
variety of the County’s leadership. The main item of
business was the BRAC situation and I briefly reviewed
our main agenda and said we were expecting to testify at
the BRAC regional hearing.
Our BRAC task force
was preparing scripts for those who would testify to
insure we stressed all the pertinent points about
“military value” and the possible economic impact.
To explain to the
public our concern about how BRAC program could affect
the Gap, Dave Metz, WLYH-TV manager, arranged speaking
engagements for us at the several service clubs. I
spoke to the Lebanon Lions Club on March 29; Col. Donald
Snyder, Chairman of our Military Affairs Committee,
spoke to the Lebanon Kiwanis on March 30 and to the
Lebanon Sertoma on April 6.
Governor Ridge
established the Pennsylvania Action Committee to provide
support for all the military installations in
Pennsylvania to help them prepare to defend against any
base closures proposed by the Department of Defense.
This committee became known by the acronym BRAC-PAC.
On March 14, the
BRAC-PAC visited the Gap. The committee briefed the
Chamber representatives and Guard officials at lunch at
the Community Club, then briefed the Gap workers in the
afternoon.
On March 27, General
Sajer retired as Adjutant General and Brig. Gen. James
MacVay, the Deputy Adjutant General for Army, became the
Adjutant General.
Another change in
command took place on March 31 when Lt. Col. David Cook
retired as the U.S. Army Garrison Commander. Cook
expedited his retirement papers and was immediately
hired by the Lebanon Valley Chamber to assist in our
coalition effort. Cook proved to be very valuable to
our effort by assuming his duties as the coordinator
with the DMA’s Crisis Action Team.
The team’s focus was
on two main areas: the April 10 visit of Al Cornella,
BRAC commissioner, and the preparation of a 30 page
color document outlining the military value of the Gap
and explaining the areas where the Army had made serious
omissions in its Support to the Army Basing Study (STAB)
and the Total Army Basing Study (TABS) analyses.
To identify errors
in these studies was extremely important because the
Commission could only make changes to the Defense
Secretary’s recommendations if it determined that the
Secretary deviated substantially from the force
structure plan and the final selection criteria. Our
task force helped in that determination by pointing out
flaws in the Army’s analyses or other facts that would
contribute to a determination of substantial deviation.
When the Army conducted the study, it
considered only the direct assets of the U.S. Army
Garrison and did not take into account the considerable
military value of the federal assets of the other units
and agencies on the base, including the Pennsylvania
Army and Air National Guard, Army Reserve and other
tenant units.
This study did not
consider the extensive, federally funded, modern and
permanent assets of the Guard units; for example, the
Army National Guard Flight Facility with its enormous
hangars and its helicopter flight simulators, and the
modern air-to-ground bombing and gunnery range (one of
only 15 in the United States), to mention only a few.
To compound these errors, the study did
not recognize the very heavy training activity that took
place on a daily basis, seven days a week, not just on
weekends and summer annual training. The study also did
not mention the important eight key accredited National
Guard school-houses that were operating on a year-round
basis.
U.S. Representative
Tim Holden visited the Gap on April 3 for a series of
briefings and a short tour in preparation for his
meeting with Commissioner Cornella on April 10. We held
a dress rehearsal for this visit on April 6.
Cordella’s visit was a great success. Students were flying their American
flags, the Northern Lebanon High School band was playing patriotic tunes and the
Fort’s fire department erected a huge banner between two high truck fire
towers. Most importantly, our briefing went off very well and we were well
represented by our
politicians: U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, Congressmen George Gekas and Tim Holden, State Sen. David J. Brightbill , State Rep.
Peter Zug, and County Commissioners Bill Carpenter and Rose Marie Swanger.
Space does not allow a complete discussion of our briefing, but
suffice to say, we challenged the Army’s recommendation that claimed the Fort
had a low military value and its closure would have no adverse impact on the
training or readiness of forces.
Our briefing
emphasized the great military value of the Fort and
pointed out how the Army’s study did not include the
Army and Air National Guard’s extensive assets which add
immeasurably to the military value. We stressed that we
were a no-frills, bare bones bargain for the United
States taxpayer, supporting a large and diverse daily
population, at very low cost. Fort Indiantown Gap was
training soldiers from 13 states. Also, we told them
about the valuable eight professional education and
training schools that carry a student load of nearly
15,000 students every year.
In addition, we told
of the Eastern Army National Guard Aviation Training
Site, the largest full-time U.S. Army primary rotary
wing training installation outside of the U.S. Army
Aviation Center at Fort Rucker, Alabama, that trains
about 1,500 aviators each year. We explained that our
Air Guard air-to-ground range is a national asset that
provided nearly 1,300 range sorties last year to enhance
the combat readiness of flying units from the Air Force,
Air Guard units from four states and the District of
Columbia as well as from Marine and Navy units.
Commissioner
Cordella seemed very impressed upon learning all of
these important facts that the Army had omitted from
its study.
We had an
opportunity to testify before the BRAC Commissioners
when they convened at the University of Maryland on May
4. Our briefers included U.S. Sen. Harris Wolford,
Gekas, MacVay, Sajer, Brightbill, Carpenter, Chamber
President Vegoe and myself.
Eventually the BRAC
Commission made its recommendation: “Close Fort
Indiantown Gap, except minimal essential ranges,
training facilities, and training areas, as a reserve
component training enclave to permit the conduct of
individual and annual training.”
President Clinton
accepted and Congress approved the commission’s
recommendation September 8, 1995.
I am very proud of
all those Chamber members, our senators and
representatives and Guard officials who came together
and performed in an outstanding manner to “Save the
Gap”. Our efforts contributed to a successful outcome,
but I must acknowledge that much credit must go to our
consultant Gen. Bultman, who, knowing some of the
commissioners personally, was able to convince them to
recommend that the Gap become a National Guard training
site, rather than result in a complete closure.
Over the next three
years, implementation of this BRAC action resulted in
the transfer of management from the active Army to the
Pennsylvania Army National Guard effective October 1,
1998. The installation remained a federally supported
activity; experienced a reduction of the overall
operating budget upon transfer to the Pennsylvania Army
National Guard; required elimination of buildings on the
installation declared excess to the Army’s requirements;
and suffered a reduction of a number of federal
employees dedicated to installation support operations.
Sadly, this resulted in a loss of over 250 jobs over the
three years leading up to the Guard takeover.
Published in the
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 edition of the Lebanon Daily
News.
©
2005 Frank H. Smoker, Jr. All rights reserved.
Reproduced by permission of the author.
 
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