By Kim Siebert MacPhail
At the Hanscom Area Towns (HATS) meeting held at Concord’s Town House on October 18, Colonel Lester Weilacher, 66th Air Base Commander, spoke about his recent arrival at Hanscom Air Force Base (AFB), how the base command structure has changed, and about the multiple infrastructure improvements now taking place at Hanscom.
Lt. Governor Tim Murray and retired Brigadier General Donald Quenneville also detailed the goals of the Military Asset and SecurityStrategy Task Force that was created last February to support the six Massachusetts military installations. The task force, said Murray, formalizes and expands a working group that was convened last year to protect these installations and to “explore opportunities to bring in new missions.”
Finally, a panel of State Representatives—Cory Atkins, JayKaufman, and Thomas Stanley—engaged with HATS members Peter Braun (Lincoln), Steven Ng (Concord), and Mike Rosenberg (Bedford)about the future of Hanscom and how best to build and reinforce a firewall of surrounding community support to ensure a strong base now and into the future.
Colonel Lester A. Weilacher
Col. Weilacher is third-generation military who, despite frequent moves, calls New Mexico “home.” He recently arrived at Hanscom—the only active Air Force base in New England and New York region—with his wife and two children after numerous relocations and a variety of assignments spanning a 20-year career.
Under the former base structure, Hanscom’s commanding officer answered to, as Weilacher put it, a three-star boss who physically resided at Hanscom. With the recent military base restructuring and redefined mission—a change that some believed signaled a decline in Hanscom’s importance—Weilacher’s boss,Lt. Gen. C.D. Moore II, is no longer stationed at Hanscom but is at Wright-Paterson AFB in Ohio instead. Moore is scheduled to visit Hanscom this November, and Weilacher said he’d be here frequently thereafter.
“What this means is the need for us to communicate, communicate, communicate to make sure that. . . .we speak with one voice and make sure the mission of Hanscom continues in the best fashion possible,” Weilacher said.
The colonel also spoke about changes in programs and services on base that have affected the surrounding communities. Youth sports teams are no longer fielded and the Hanscom library recently closed,, although some of the popular library programs have been relocated elsewhere on the base.On a positive note, this downsizing has led to an increased integration of military and civilian residents of the adjacent towns.
“I take great pride in telling people that we are surrounded by four wonderful communities that welcome us with open arms into their libraries, onto their youth sports teams—so it’s a wonderful area to be in, ”Weilacher said.
Hanscom housing has also seen a shift and is now privatized. Currently, the units are 98% occupied by personnel from a mixture of different military branches, although the majority arestill Air Force.
On the investment side, the Pentagon is funding several infrastructure projects on Hanscom that could indicate a long-term commitment to keeping the base open. These projects include a multi-million dollar expansion and renovation of the base’s middle (grades 4-8) and primary (K-3) schools; a land-swap deal with Massport to expand and improve the Vandenberg gate and Hanscom Visitor’s Center off Rte. 2A; a $2.5M expansion to the base’s mental health clinic; repairs to the steam plant that generates 70% of Hanscom’s heat; and plans to lower energy costs through improving efficiencies and other projects.
On the subject of schools, the Superintendent’s office confirms that there are 136 Hanscom students attending Bedford High School. Bedford’s Selectman Rosenberg said that the arrangement between Hanscom and Bedford Schools has been in existence since the early 60’s and Weilacher applauded Bedford’s recent initiative to assign a dedicated guidance counselor specifically for Hanscom students.
“The feedback I get from kids and parents is that [guidance counselor Brian DeChellis] is a wonderful resource. As you can appreciate, moving to a new town in your high school years [can be difficult], but he’s there to help our students and to be in their corner,” the colonel said.
As for the base schools, Chuck Paone of Hanscom’s Public Affairs office cites enrollment numbers there: 306 in the primary school (grades K-3) and 250 in the middle school (grades 4-8). The school building expansion and renovation project is not thought to foreshadow increased enrollment figures, but is instead an attempt to accommodate the needs of the 21st century classroom. Small class sizes in the primary and middle schools, said Weilacher, make multiple transitions easier for the kids. The base schools are administered by the Lincoln school system.
Lt. Governor Murray’s Military Asset and Security Strategy Task Force
The Task Force, as described by the Lt. Governor’s office, is “engaging with industry, nonprofit, municipal officials, elected officials, and community members surrounding each installation in order to enhance, expand, add or otherwise improve mission, programs, facilities, and operations affecting military installations in the Commonwealth.”
There are six military bases in Massachusetts that are supported by the Task Force:
- Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield
- Fort Devens in Ayer
- Mass. Military Reservation (Otis and Camp Edwards) on Cape Cod
- Natick Soldier Systems Center
- Westover Air Reserve Base, and
- Hanscom AFB.
Together they account for more than 46,500 direct jobs. Collectively, defense plus homeland security federal contracts generate more than 130,000 jobs in the state. Statistics from Murray’s office state that in 2011, “Massachusetts received $13.9 billion in Defense Department contracts, an 83% increase since 2003.” As for New England as a whole, in 2011 military contracts accounted for $34 billion in revenue. The Lt. Governor said that Hanscom’s economic impact, alone, in 2011 was over $8 billion.
Murray and Ret. Brig. Gen. Quenneville spoke of the need to create—and then maintain—the Task Force in perpetuity because it will reinforce the understanding of the importance of Massachusetts military installations in a climate of federal spending reductions.
“We know that Hanscom is a digital nerve center that helps make the Air Force one of the most advanced in the world,” said Murray. “Clearly [Hanscom’s] mission has huge national security impacts and economic implications. The command and control work that’s done there supports large field missions to elite, small units. . . .Sequestration or not, no matter who wins the national election in November, there’s going to have to be belt-tightening, cuts and consolidation in virtually every line item in the federal budget. There’s perhaps one exception and that is in the realm of cyber-security.”
Proximity to quality education across the spectrum—from public schools to community colleges to technical training to undergraduate and advanced degrees—was noted as a key advantage of the region, but Quenneville cautioned that, with “a cyber-Pearl Harbor” potentially looming on the horizon, the country can’t wait for people to be trained. A better alignment of education and training to meet the need of the regional economies has been given priority status, specifically in areas such as cryptology and data security programming.
Murray said, “Some schools train in these areas well, some do it ok, and some don’t do it very well at all. That can’t happen anymore.”
Murray and Quenneville agreed that forging permanent, strong relationships between the military and civilian realms for the long term—not merely in the face of possible base closings—will demonstrate Massachusetts’ commitment to supporting the military.
“Over the course of the next year,” Murray said, “we expect this Task Force to analyze our military installations to determine where there are opportunities to fill vacant spaces, upgrade aging infrastructure, become more energy efficient, identify new missions and build partnerships to bring more jobs and economic development at and around each site.”
State Rep Panel and HATS members discuss outreach
Stressing that this round of base closings and consolidations is neither the first nor the last, Representatives Cory Atkins, Jay Kaufman, and Thomas Stanley urged the HATS towns to adopt a philosophy of collaboration and interdependence with the Hanscom community.
Representative Kaufman said that the HATS towns need to be proactive in their relationships with their military neighbors and make sure that they receive a welcoming message
“The military personnel are so embedded in our community,” said Bedford’s Rosenberg, “that I can’t even imagine what it would be like without them. Before the base was built, Bedford had a population of a couple of thousand—most of them were farmers. So we grew up together.”
Kaufman added, “We need to put 100% of our effort into preserving and expanding the base and another 40-50% of our energy into a contingency plan [if the base closes or drastically downsizes.]”
Lincoln’s Braun urged creative thinking about what services the communities could provide now that would keep the base strong. “My sense is that municipalities in other states across the country are thinking about how they can provide services to take the burden off the bases.”
“You know,” said Representative Atkins, “we’re getting a lot of push down from the federal government on expenses, which means just more push down from the state to the localities, which means the rise of the most unpopular and rigid tax: the property tax. So, we’re going to have to be really creative.”
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