Who Can Really Say?

Willow Grove, the Saturday After

I'm not at all sure how hard this should be to figure out, but a day after Gov. Rendell won his lawsuit to keep the 111th PA National Guard Fighter Wing active, and a day after the BRAC Commission decided to close Willow Grove NAS JRB where the Wing is located, it's still unclear in my mind what will happen to the planes, 15 A-10 "Warthogs", or the Wing itself. Not so much the base, though, which now faces an uphill battle to survive.

As to the planes, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, they're gone, three sets of three each to go to other units and the remaining six to the graveyard.

The federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission dropped the Pentagon's request to deactivate the 111th Fighter Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, the base's primary operating unit.

If the unit remains on duty, however, it is unclear what it will do, because 15 A-10 "Warthog" attack planes now at the base will be reassigned.

. . . .

"They didn't deactivate the 111th, but they gave away the airplanes," said Dan McCaffrey, cochair of the regional military affairs committee of the Suburban Horsham Willow Grove Chamber of Commerce.

"Gov. Rendell has 1,700 air guardsmen but no planes," McCaffrey said, referring to part-time and full-time service people. "Now the question is: Do they still have any funding?"

Adrian King, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and Rendell's point man on the lawsuit, said the base-closing committee had the power to close the base and move the aircraft.

"Overall, the BRAC does have the discretion to close the real estate, and they appear to have done that," King said.

Well I suppose if they say they took the planes, then they took the planes. But I listened again to the BRAC hearing linked to below, and it sure sounded to me that the motion preceding the final vote to close the base deleted references to deactivating the Wing and moving the planes. I looked briefly on the BRAC DoD website to find the original recommendation, which I thought might help figure this out, but I gave up. It's a Saturday afternoon afterall, and like I said before, I only know enough to be dangerous about the legalities of this stuff. Yet still, I labor on.

The Philadelphia Daily News took a different, more personal tack.

Indeed, the battle over the future of the historic air base had consumed this leafy suburb of rolling hills and shopping centers for much of the summer. It's almost impossible to drive anywhere in Willow Grove or the surrounding Montgomery County communities without seeing "Save Our Base" yard signs, even on a lawn next to the Double Visions Erotic Go-Go Club.

Ah yes -- my hometown. A leafy suburb of rolling hills, shopping centers, and the Double Visions Erotic Go-Go Club. I've gotta remember to buy some postcards.

What about the Wing?

Col. Gregory Marston, commander of the 111th and Col. Paul Comtois, the air-commander of the 111th, declined to speculate on the fate of the unit. Marston noted that Congress and the president must still sign off on the BRAC decision, and "meanwhile, our job is to prepare airmen for combat and we will continue to do so," he said. "The whole process takes years and we have to keep going."

If nothing else, with a little luck maybe the Base will be around for one final Air Show.

And what about the Base?

State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, a Republican whose district includes Montgomery and Bucks counties, said he is hopeful the state can keep the air field open as its own facility, as was done several years ago with a base at Indiantown Gap. "I think it is important for us to maintain our security and for us to maintain the importance of the military here."

I have no idea how this will play out, but then again, it's still only Saturday afternoon.

[Linked to LT Smash's Liberty Call.

Posted by Peter at August 27, 2005 04:48 PM