Let the 129th go and use valuable land Let the 129th go and use valuable land (January 21, 2005)

By Lenny Siegel

Last week the Voice reported that the 129th Air National Guard Rescue Wing had dropped plans to relocate from Moffett Field. Local officials were elated.

A quick reality check, however, suggests that the Guard unit will find a new home anyhow, and that it won't be such a bad thing. In fact, the Guard's departure will open up new possibilities for the Moffett airstrip property if we plan ahead.

This isn't an issue of being pro-war or anti-war, pro-military or anti-military. The Air National Guard itself has concluded that it can do its work, which includes regional civilian missions as well as global military action, better, more efficiently elsewhere.

Expect the 129th to be on the list of proposed military base re-alignments submitted by the Defense Department this May to the new base-closure commission. This is a rather safe bet because last time there was a base-closure commission, 1995, the 129th was on the list. It stayed at Moffett only because its destination facility, McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento, was closed instead.

Local officials and members of the Bay Area Congressional delegation are unlikely to be able to block such a move. The base-closure process is designed to prevent Congressional intervention, and the Air Force will be proposing relocation as part of a comprehensive plan to improve its operational efficiency.

That leave three options for the future of Moffett Field's flight operations:

1. It will remain a federal airfield, used occasionally by NASA Ames Research Center and local aerospace contractors and even more rarely by Air Force One. NASA would have to find the funds -- last time I checked it was over $10 million a year -- and hire the personnel to operate and maintain the runways, a task it now contracts out to the Air National Guard.

2. NASA could transfer the runways and support structures to the county airport system for use as a general aviation (small aircraft) airport, a move I don't think local residents would welcome.

3. NASA and our city governments could recognize that the Moffett airstrip is perhaps the largest piece of reusable land in northern Santa Clara County. NASA could set aside a few hundred acres to provide housing for its planned research campus. The northern end of the runways could be restored as open space. In the long run, portions of the property not needed by NASA could be sold off to provide needed civilian housing.

I consider the third option a remarkable opportunity. Instead of wasting time lobbying to retain military flight operations at Moffett, our local officials, Congressional delegation and NASA should be developing, in consultation with the public at large, a plan which makes the highest and best use of Moffett Field to serve NASA, adjacent communities and the region as a whole.
Lenny Siegel is a Mountain View resident and an officer of the Alliance for a New Moffett Field.

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