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Pensacola NAS ready for duty Monday
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By Brett Norman
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Pensacola News Journal, September 30th, 2004
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Contending with leaky roofs, widespread flood damage and at least 20 to 30 uninhabitable buildings, Pensacola Naval Air Station will resume regular training, including a full flight schedule, next week, Capt. John Pruitt said Wednesday.
Since Hurricane Ivan plowed through Pensacola NAS with a massive storm surge and pounding winds early Sept. 16, thousands of students and more than 1,000 contractors have labored to prepare the base to resume training Naval aviators and their support personnel, all of whom pass through Pensacola on their way to being deployed.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla, expects an emergency appropriations bill to go before Congress by Friday that will ask for about $900 million to pay for Ivan's damage to military installations -- almost $400 million for Pensacola Bay Area Naval bases.
That is how much President Bush asked for as part of $7.1 billion relief request, Miller said Wednesday.
For now, the Navy is spending about $1 million a day on cleanup, roof repair and other reconstruction, said Pruitt, commanding officer of the base. He is recommending 20 to 30 buildings -- including some of the historic structures in the old Navy yards -- be demolished and not replaced.
But he said full base operations will resume without relocating any functions off-site.
"The needs of the fleet are being met," he said. "Certainly they are going to rebuild and make it the vibrant training base that it is. ... What you're going to see long-term is a different look to Naval Air Station Pensacola."
Pruitt spoke to reporters Wednesday in front of a devastated building that used to house a photography laboratory and the Marines' water survival school. A dummy in a life jacket lay on its back in the torn open entrance to what was left of the structure.
Looking at the gutted buildings, blown-out windows and damaged roofs throughout the historic Navy yards on Pensacola Pass, the challenges facing the base are obvious.
Damage estimated at about $800 million -- $460 million to facilities and the balance to operational expenses -- have prompted questions about whether Ivan has made the base more vulnerable in next year's round of Base Realignment and Closure hearings.
Miller, who accompanied a string of federal officials on tours of the destruction in the Panhandle during the past two weeks, said the coming appropriations bill suggested area bases would fare well.
"It's almost identical to what happened to Homestead Air Force Base (which was closed down) after Andrew hit in 1992. At that point, the White House chose not to invest and repair its buildings ahead of BRAC," he said. "This (appropriations request) is a clear sign that the White House and the Congress place a high value on the importance of military installations in Northwest Florida, in particular the training missions."
U.S. Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, R-Largo, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, toured the Bay Area on Friday and pledged to include the president's request in the relief bill, Miller said.
"The people that needed to see the damage that was done have been there and not balked at the numbers we requested," he said.
Miller's chief of staff, Dan McFaul, said the emergency appropriations funds are for one year only and that more funds may be obtained in the future to cover the discrepancy between the damages and the relief.
Retired Vice Adm. Jack Fetterman, vice chairman of the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce Armed Services Committee, said closing Pensacola bases is not a realistic option.
"It is fundamental to Naval operations," Fetterman said. "If you didn't reinvest here, you would have to replicate it somewhere else, and you can't really do that."
On Monday, all 20,000 employees and students will report for duty to Pensacola NAS, Saufley Field and Corry Station, Pruitt said. Crews are working this week to reopen the Blue Angel Parkway entrance to NAS and restore power to a few remaining buildings.
The Naval Air Technical Training Center, which has 6,000 students, began some training Monday, Pruitt said. All students, who had been staying in area shelters, have been returned to base quarters. Base officials are juggling available building space to provide rooms when training resumes next week, when students also will fly a full flight schedule, Pruitt said.
Whiting Field Naval Air Station, an inland base in Santa Rosa County that was spared from the full force of Ivan, began recovering aircraft Saturday and flying this week.
In another development, power was restored Wednesday to the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Pruitt and Fetterman, who also is president and chief executive officer of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, plan to meet today to discuss when the museum will reopen. The museum is the Bay Area's second-most-popular tourist attraction, drawing more than 900,000 visitors a year. Its damage was limited to a few leaks in the roof.
"I'm calling everybody in on Friday," Fetterman said. "We should know more after that. Our biggest challenge is marketing: We want to come out with a big marketing blitz to get people back."
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