INDEX - MILITARY
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SUBJECT: PMRF LAND REQUEST - PART THREE

SOURCE: JUAN WILSON juanwilson@mac.com

POSTED: 18 APRIL 2004 - 11:30am HST

Against Stryker Base & C-17 Training on Kauai


C-17 on runway. For more click here.

by Juan Wilson on 18 April 2004

If I had my way there would be no US military presense on Kauai. In the present climate of America that is unrealistic. As the author of the Nohili Park Initiative (NPI) it is my goal has been to simply relocate the PMRF base away from the beach, and return the use of the shoreline to the people of Hawaii

I am opposed to C-17 landings and a Stryker Brigade based on Kauai. There may be a place here for defensive military sensors, data gathering and intelligence coordination. As part of a "Defense" Department the PMRF may justify some of it's work to peace loving people. Some might even argue that research, development and testing of that technology, in itself, does not kill and maim innocent people. But I strongly feel that combat weapons that could be used for preemptive attacks on other shores should be banned from Kauai.



SUBJECT: PMRF LAND REQUEST - PART THREE

Review begun of Nohili Park Initiative (NPI)

SOURCE: JUAN WILSON juanwilson@mac.com

POSTED: 5 APRIL 2004 - 2:30pm HST

There is some good news!
Since February the navy has officially withdrawn from the Hawaii State Department of Land & Natural Resources its past proposal for additional land and influence on the Mana Plain. This will not be the end of the issue, but it does show the public reaction to the plan has had an effect.

Since then the alternative plan presented on Hoike TV has been reviewed by some on the list who were mailed the scheme. THose who got the plan are:

Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste
Councilwoman JoAnne Yokimura
US Senator Daniel Akaka
US Congressman Ed Case
HI Senator Gary Hooser
HI Representative Berth Kawakami
DLNR Administrator Dierde Mamiya
PMRF Commander Jeff Connelly

For you to get a copy of the plan check out the box below.

This is the latest version of the Nohili Park Initiative Master Plan. You can evaluate that plan for yourself on the web, here.

This is a color jpg file about 600kb. It is formatted as 11"x17". Print at 65% of its original size to ft on 8.5"x11" paper. A more detailed PDF file is available on request from Juan Wilson

There has been some response. PMRF Commander Connelly has responded by forwarding a copy of the plan to the Pacific Division Engineering Division on Oahu. This action should at least puts the plan on the Navy's radar. See copy of letter below.

Gary Hooser responded very positively to the plan and suggested that I should send a copy of the plan to US Senator Inouye and Hawaii Governor Lingle. This I will do. Hooser added that he was concerned about the southern runway approach angle as it relates to Kekaha. This is very valid concern and will be addressed. He added that even if the plan was adopted, it is not clear what if any functions of today's PMRF need access to beach property, and whether the the NCI plan could accommodate temporary use of some beachfront by the Navy.

Gary went on to say that the plan could get a positive response from some quarters who would see money flowing to Kauai and Hawaii if the plan were implemented. He acknowledged that this was a politically cynical point of view, but it is how things get done.

An interesting article appeared in the garden Island News and Honolulu Advertiser about the relocation of the Pacific Command on Oahu on 3 April 2004. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Apr/03/ln/ln04a.html. Here's what it said...

Journalists got a rare opportunity to visit the top-secret Pacific Command Joint Operations Center, underground at the new $152 million Nimitz-MacArthur Pacific Command headquarters at Camp Smith.

At the center, military officials can track every person and vehicle in Pacific Command. Jeff WIdener • The Honolulu Advertiser



Command center goes high-tech By Will Hoover Advertiser Staff Writer

The world's largest combat command now has a technological facility equal to its geographic span.

"In the military, this is as high-tech as it gets anywhere," Army Maj. Gen. Ron Lowe told a press contingent visiting the normally restricted areas inside the new $152 million Nimitz-MacArthur Pacific Command Center yesterday at Camp Smith. "Bill Gates might have something that compares with it, but ... "

The facility's high-tech communications capability dramatically increases the command's capacity to focus on all 105 million square miles in its area of responsibility — an expanse equal to more than half the Earth's surface.

Its Joint Operations Center can monitor military activities, video-teleconference with Washington and far-flung military leaders, and track every person and vehicle within the Pacific Command.

The six-story, 274,500-square-foot structure sits across the road from the old headquarters building, which began as a 1,650-bed hospital in 1941. In 1957, the deactivated hospital became the headquarters for the joint forces Pacific Command, and it will continue to serve Marine Forces Pacific and other command support activities.

In the past two weeks, 1,200 service members have packed up their desks and moved from the old complex to the new. For Lowe, the command chief of staff, the contrast between the two is hard to fathom.

"When the other building was constructed, the electronic infrastructure was the telephone," Lowe said as he showed off the new facility's Command Conference Room. "We've got about 12,000 data channels that have been built into this headquarters."

The nerve center for so much high-tech power is found in the underground Joint Operations Center, a 1,500-square-foot, split-level auditorium straight out of "War Games" — except that the Hollywood version could barely fake what this one does for real.

Backed by a high-definition screen 35 feet long by 7 feet high, Col. Robert Clinton, Operations Center director, highlighted some of the top-secret control room's wizardry.
"One of the unique capabilities we have here on the floor is that we integrate both the intelligence and operations information," said Clinton. That includes coordinating a staggering array of military, political, legal, medical or weather-related data from all parts of the world and projecting it in graphic form quickly and comprehensively.

"This allows us to seamlessly and quickly get the complete picture of what's going on throughout the world," Clinton said.

From there, the processed information goes directly to Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of Pacific Command, for evaluation.

"We never lose contact with the commander," Clinton said.
Amazing as the new command center is, the facility has pulled off an even more astounding feat: Lowe said it came in under budget.


Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com .

This Honolulu Advertiser article indicates that the Navy is retooling for the future. We need to encourage them to get it right on Kauai. There are some who would say that we want the Navy off Kauai and no compromise is acceptable. I don't think anyone is going to push the military on Kauai into the sea. They may point to Panama, Subilk Bay, Clarke Air force Base and other cases where the US has reduced or eliminated activities, but Hawaii is still too strategic to US interests.

On the other hand, one of the things we must be careful of now is wishing for the right thing. That's because sometimes you actually get what you want. If we were actually able to convince the Navy to move away from our beaches we need assurances that the miltary...

1) Remove restrictions on the shoreline.
2) Don't get more land than they have now.
3) Turn over existing PMRF land in phases as new PMRF land is acquired.
4) Clear and restore land they give up.
5) Help fund the conservation and reacreatonal use of their previous lease land.


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