Too Much Room for a War Room

Fighter pilots are gone. Intelligence wizards are in. So does the military base in Bourne still really need 22,000 acres?

(Illustration by Gary Sawyer)

For more than 35 years, Cape Cod residents and tourists were well aware of a local military air defense presence from the familiar sound of jets blazing across the sky. F-15s from Otis Air National Guard Base were the first scrambled to New York City on the morning of September 11, 2001. But as of January, they are there no more. As part of the federal government's effort to streamline and close some military bases, the jets recently flew their last mission at the Massachusetts Military Reservation in Bourne, with some reassigned to Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield. But because politicians like Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry and Representative William Delahunt argued that the Air National Guard should remain at the Bourne base, which encompasses Otis, the Air Force found a new mission for the 102d Fighter Wing: intelligence. The transitioning unit, made up of 375 individuals, will now man a high-tech ground station, one of many facilities that analyze visual data from the battlefield, according to Colonel Anthony Schiavi, commander of the 102d. If you're thinking of something out of The Bourne Ultimatum, you're not far off.

The Air National Guard says it is embracing the change, an exciting mission in the overall fight against terrorism. But the question remains: Why continue to occupy a site whose facilities are geared to a fighter wing and whose acreage is too much for what the new mission requires, especially when there is a huge demand for other land uses on this peninsula? "The intelligence function does not have an impact on what a base should be or what it should look like," says Christopher Hellman, a Northampton-based military policy fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. "But because communities look at base closures with trepidation, there's a comfort level with the status quo."

Now is as good a time as ever to reevaluate why the Air National Guard and the Army National Guard, which together use a majority of the roughly 22,000-acre base, need so much land. Why not divide some of it for commercial or industrial use, to add much-needed nonmilitary jobs to this area, which is frighteningly dependent on a turbulent tourist industry? Why not transition some of the base's older buildings into affordable housing, which consistently ranks as a top priority, in order to build a solid economy there? And while we're at it, why not cordon off some acreage for recreational purposes or as an open-space preserve? Residents and tourists need more places to enjoy the area's natural beauty, since the existing beaches are becoming more crowded each year and it seems as if local groups are always locked in a struggle just to preserve a dozen acres here and there.

The past has proved that military base closures, around the country as well as in New England, end up benefiting the surrounding communities - Hellman cites Pease and Devens as examples. But just as our politicians argued, we needn't close the base. Just shrink it a little. "It's not unprecedented to lease to communities portions of federal land," says Hellman. "Just because they own it doesn't mean they have to be the sole user." Who knows? The synergies between private industry and large research institutions have worked a few miles south in Woods Hole; witness the collaborations between the renowned oceanographic institution and the handful of marine-technology companies located nearby.

It just makes economic sense. If your business were changing one of its branches' focus from manufacturing to services, would you still have personnel work in the old factory? It would be fiscally irresponsible. That's why it's puzzling that our government, which is trying to be financially efficient about training a military for the global war on terror, is so adamant about keeping intact an enormous base that features facilities and real estate that could be used in other ways.

A thorough review of what missions an intelligence wing might conduct in the future must be taken into account before we start a fire sale of sorts. It would be silly to repurpose the runways, say, as a municipal airport if the Air National Guard plans to conduct drone training a few years down the line. But in this case, it's time we look beyond the age-old tradition of having a large local military presence for the sake of having one, and think of the greater good of the community.

Scott Lajoie is an editor and writer in Mashpee. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.