BRAC head invited to check out fort’s mission

Congressmen: Pentagon number-crunchers don

BY SUE M. MORGAN Staff Writer

BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer

CHRIS KELLY staff Maj. Gen. Michael R. Mazzucchi (l), commanding general of the Communications Electronics Life Cycle Management Command at Fort Monmouth, and Col. Ricki L. Sullivan, Fort Monmouth Garrison commander, field questions from media representatives at a press conference held at Gibbs Hall on May 13. CHRIS KELLY staff Maj. Gen. Michael R. Mazzucchi (l), commanding general of the Communications Electronics Life Cycle Management Command at Fort Monmouth, and Col. Ricki L. Sullivan, Fort Monmouth Garrison commander, field questions from media representatives at a press conference held at Gibbs Hall on May 13. Two area congressmen are inviting the head of a federal commission created to determine the fate of military bases throughout the nation to look closer at Fort Monmouth’s service to soldiers in the field, before choosing to shut it down.

Three days after the U.S. Department of Defense announced that Fort Monmouth, Eatontown, is one of 33 military installations nationwide recommended for shutting, U.S. Representatives Rush Holt (D-12th District) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-6th District) are appealing to Anthony J. Principi, chairman of the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission, to visit the threatened base and experience its mission firsthand.

The Defense Department has made a “terrible error in recommending the closure” of Fort Monmouth, described as a “critical military installation” during wartime, Holt and Pallone wrote in the letter distributed following Monday morning’s meeting of the Save Our Fort Committee, an advocacy group co-chaired by both congressmen.

Because the nine BRAC commissioners, none of whom are from New Jersey, are now entrusted by the Defense Department to choose which if any of the 33 targeted bases are removed from the Pentagon’s list of recommendations, public officials must now grab their attention, Holt explained.

Unlike the “specific, limited criteria” used by the Pentagon in recommending that Fort Monmouth be shut down and its operations relocated mainly to the Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in Aberdeen, Maryland, the BRAC commission looks at each targeted installation in the context of “national security [and] homeland security,” he said.

Contingents of BRAC commissioners are required to visit all of the bases suggested for closing this summer, prior to Sept. 8 when the commissioners’ final listing of recommended base closings and realignments is submitted to President George W. Bush, Pallone noted.

“We will spend the next three months fighting this battle,” he said.

In their correspondence to Principi, a California resident, both congressmen offered to show him the U.S. Army’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems created by Fort Monmouth scientists and engineers.

“Several of the most technologically advanced systems currently being used today in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Homeland Defense were developed at Fort Monmouth, and are playing a direct and major role in helping our troops in the global war on terror,” Holt and Pallone wrote.

“We would be honored to show these to you personally at Fort Monmouth,” the congressmen added.

Soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan are “relying on Fort Monmouth for ground-breaking and timely innovations to keep them safe and effective,” Holt and Pallone wrote.

If Fort Monmouth is closed, the safety and effectiveness of those soldiers and the nation would be compromised, they added.

Joined by Mayors Gerald Tarantolo, Ann Y. McNamara, and Maria Gatta, who lead the fort’s three host communities, Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport respectively, three of the fort’s host communities, Holt and Pallone contended that the Pentagon had ignored the fort’s “military value” and its ability to “cross-service” other branches of the military besides the U.S. Army.

Frank Muzzi, a fort contractor who also co-chairs the Patriot’s Alliance, another advocacy group, also joined in to back up the congressmen as they moved ahead with their battle to save the base from closure.

Regardless of party affiliation, public officials from the federal, state, county and municipal levels must endeavor to demonstrate Fort Monmouth’s research and development capabilities to Principi and other BRAC commissioners, Pallone said.

“Numbers crunchers” inside the Pentagon who have determined that the Defense Department can save $143 million per year over six years by moving Fort Monmouth’s operations to APG at a cost of $822 million do not understand the local base’s mission, he continued.

“The nature of what is done here is a little more esoteric and not as well known at the Pentagon,” Pallone said, noting that the U.S. Army has recommended that Fort Monmouth remain open.

The Defense Department has “overestimated the savings to be garnered by moving the facility,” Holt and Pallone wrote to Principi.

The Defense Department has argued that the cost of living, health insurance and utilities will be significantly less in Aberdeen, located about an hour outside of Baltimore, than they would be in Monmouth County, Muzzi noted.

Yet it is unlikely that the cost of living would be that much lower in Aberdeen, which is also located in the northeastern corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston, Pallone pointed out.

“That’s not exactly a low-cost area,” he said.

By predicting that 75 to 80 percent of the more than 5,000 civilians now employed at Fort Monmouth would relocate to Maryland, the Pentagon has already shown “that they don’t understand the nature of their workforce,” Holt said.

Public officials and other Fort Monmouth supporters need to impress upon Principi and the BRAC commissioners that the majority of the civilian workforce will refuse to relocate and uproot their families, he continued.

As a result, new civilian scientists and engineers possessing the knowledge now available at Fort Monmouth would have to be recruited for APG, Holt said.

By the time those workers were up to speed on the advanced technologies, soldiers in the field could be put at risk, he continued.

“[Fort Monmouth] has been the center of electronics, telecommunications, signals, the kind of thing that has provided a level of support and a level of expertise that would be very hard to duplicate elsewhere,” Holt said.

The Pentagon has also “failed to calculate the jointness Fort Monmouth has achieved with nearby military facilities at Fort Dix, Lakehurst, McGuire and Earle,” both congressmen wrote to Principi.

The first three military installations, located contiguously in Burlington and Ocean counties, have been recommended for realignment into a central operation to serve all branches of the service, Pallone pointed out.

However, the Pentagon has ignored Fort Monmouth’s attempts at “cross-servicing” all branches of the military, he added.

“[The Pentagon] is looking at Fort Dix and Lakehurst and saying they want cross-servicing there,” Pallone said. “We’re doing cross-servicing here.”

Although economic impact on the host communities is lower on the list of criteria used by the Pentagon to evaluate bases for closure or restructuring, all three mayors emphasized that they will rally residents to save the installation.

“Fort Monmouth is a beloved institution in Tinton Falls,” said McNamara, who noted that “every single [resident] feels it would be a loss to see the fort close.”

The results of a study, funded by the state Department of Community Affairs, on the impact of a possible fort closing on the three host communities as well as upon neighboring Little Silver and Shrewsbury are expected to be released by the end of the month, Tarantolo said.

About 25 percent of Fort Monmouth is physically located in Oceanport, a scenario that has residents there showing “tremendous support” to keep the base open, Gatta said.

“Everyone is looking to help. Everyone is doing their part,” she said.

No date is set yet for Principi, who is vice president of Pfizer Inc., to visit Fort Monmouth, which if closed, would take about two to six years to dismantle, both congressmen said.