Winter: Miramar to stay military

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By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer

SAN DIEGO MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT — In his first visit to this Navy-Marine Corps fleet concentration area as the service secretary, Donald C. Winter stood his ground on a nagging, ongoing issue: Whether the Navy would give up or share Miramar Marine Corps Air Station for civilian use as an international airport.

His response? It’s “no” and, well, “no.”

Winter, during a week visiting Southern California bases, on Wednesday told a crowd of local elected leaders, military commanders and defense industry representatives that either option was “illogical.”

Some local officials want the Marines to vacate Miramar and shift its air operations elsewhere, while others see a compromise of joint use for civilian commercial flights. In November, city and county residents will vote on a ballot initiative to pursue options eyed by a regional airport board, which is on the record as supporting takeover of Miramar or another area military base to convert to a civilian airport.

But Winter, who recently was visited at his Pentagon office by a local delegation, echoed the views and concerns of regional military leaders.

“We recognize that there is a need [to expand] … air and transport in and out of San Diego,” he told the regional chamber’s military affairs committee at a breakfast meeting. “But I worry about the pursuit of options to the exclusion of others.”

“I worry about the safety issue,” Winter said, explaining that mixing military training units and flights with civilian traffic could lead to a disaster.

Winter also questioned the need to expand the city’s existing airport and the likelihood of availability of federal tax monies “just to provide some additional capacity just for one locality. That would be an amazing feat.”

Closing Miramar would require the construction of replacement facilities.

“Why should the citizens of the United States spend taxpayer dollars to replace one of the best facilities that we have here … and the only West Coast facility?” he said. “I presume that it would be an increasingly hard road.”

Miramar, home to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, supports land and aircraft carrier operations and training, along with North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, in an area that extends north and east into the Southwest’s deserts and west across the military’s vast offshore training and live-fire ranges.

“We need our facilities here,” Winter said, adding that the Navy will continue to work with local leaders. “I’d like to figure out how to work this.”

One thing is certain: The Navy and the military aren’t leaving San Diego.

The bayside city’s military presence is slated to expand under the Navy’s plans to homeport the first four ships of the Littoral Combat Ship, three additional submarines shifted from the East Coast and its mine warfare community, which is relocating from Texas.

“The Navy has been an anchor tenant,” Winter told the crowd, some who work in the region’s $13 billion defense industry. “The future looks like it’s going to have increasing opportunities,” including an expanding naval presence in the Pacific region.

“It’s a long-term commitment on the part of the Navy to be here,” he added.

Winter arrived at Miramar on Monday and traveled to Marine Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, where he visited several new ranges and observed desert warfare training. At Camp Pendleton, he got a ride in an Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, which the Corps is developing and testing to replace the Amphibious Assault Vehicle. “I had a good chance to observe the predeployment training … and saw some of the activities at Camp Pendleton,” he said.

Returning to San Diego, he visited Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 3 on Tuesday. On tap during Winter’s trip are visits to 3rd Fleet headquarters, Coronado Naval Amphibious Base and San Diego Naval Medical Center, where he will meet with recuperating Purple Heart recipients, O’Rourke said. He also will have breakfast with crew members on the aircraft carrier Nimitz and meet with local leaders, including San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. “He’s doing a little bit of everything,” said Brian O’Rourke, a Navy Region Southwest spokesman in San Diego. “He’s getting a whole lot of things [to see].”

Winter, a former executive with TRW Systems and Northrop Grumman, is also slated to visit the NASSCO shipyard, the largest ship repair facility in the region, and meet with workers from Washington’s Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at the Coronado base.