Air Force Base Amnesia

When you lobby for an Air Force base, you end up with airplanes, a fact that the New Mexico congressional delegation has forgotten since 2005 when it pushed the Pentagon to keep Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis open when facing an early BRAC decision to close it.

New Mexico's Congress folks -- some of whom are no longer in office -- joined with Gov. Bill Richardson in 2005 to pledge a "unified assault" against any plans to close Cannon, which employed 2,800 people in Clovis, population 32,000, near the Texas border.

Then congressman and now Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said the decision to close Clovis as wrongheaded and vowed "to leave no stone unturned to ensure that Cannon remains a vital component of our defense infrastructure." He followed this up with remarks on the House floor in May 2005 extolling the blessings of unrestricted air space in New Mexico for training.

The Pentagon decided to keep Cannon open, but without an air wing until the Air Force decided to move the 27th Special Operations Wing -- which flies a special ops version of the C-130 cargo aircraft, such as the AC-130 "Spectre" gunship and the CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft -- there in October 2007.

In September, Cannon announced (surprise) that it planned to fly those aircraft around northeast New Mexico and southern Colorado.

Cannon officials said they planned a total of 688 training flights annually in airspace that covers 600,000 square miles, and vowed the flights would "avoid airfields, towns, noise-sensitive areas, and wilderness areas."

Despite the limited flights, reaction from the local portions of the citizenry, especially in the way cool New Mexico cities Santa Fe and Taos, was swift and angry. The city council in my home town, Las Vegas, N.M., passed a resolution against the flights.

Udall, while saying he still supported the Cannon mission, pushed the Air Force in September to extend the public comment period. He didn't mention the marvelous unrestricted airspace he touted in 2005. Richardson, not a shy guy, hasn't said a word in defense of Cannon.

Some of the criticisms of the Cannon flights border on the ludicrous, considering everything else that goes on in New Mexico. Activists in Taos expressed concern the flights would aggravate the PTSD of combat veterans - although as a Marine combat Vietnam veteran, I find myself aggravated annually by the fusillades of fireworks that start in mid June and end in mid July, ostensibly to celebrate the 4th.

Also, I'm still awaiting my invitation to personally discuss PTSD with Taos activists over a cup of chai and a plate of gluten free cookies.

Other folks worried about the effect of the flights on wildlife. I guess that's the wildlife that's not been driven out of the forests and mountains by fleets of all terrain vehicles, which probably generate more noise than a C-130 flying between 2,000 and 3,000 feet.

The Albuquerque Journal and my local paper, the Las Vegas Optic, also seem to have their own case of amnesia because neither has presented the 2005 background on why (surprise) the Air Force has airplanes at Cannon and now wants to fly them.

My prediction: The activists will win, and in the next BRAC round all military bases in New Mexico will be closed.