Dornan Joins With Liberal Foe to Fight Air Guard Cutbacks

In an unlikely case of political symbiosis, ardent Orange County conservative Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and one of Congress’ most liberal members, Rep. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Berkeley), are spearheading an effort to reverse planned Pentagon cutbacks in the California Air National Guard.

At the urging of the two ideological opposites, who are both members of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, all 43 other members of the California congressional delegation have signed a letter urging Defense Secretary Dick Cheney not to reduce manpower and equipment for three guard units. The letter was delivered this week.

“Ron Dellums may be ideological on the House floor and wax poetic on war and peace and how we need massive cuts in the defense budget,” Dornan said in an interview Tuesday, “but in (Dellums’ work on an armed services) subcommittee, he is flawlessly fair and bipartisan.”

Dellums’ special counsel, Bob Brauer, said of Dornan: “You deal in the House of Representatives on issues, and those people who choose to come where you are come where you are. . . . I think it’s a common opinion that the California National Guard does important things.”

“I think it’s unprecedented,” a key congressional aide said. “We got all 45 members on the letter, and it was because of the oddness of Dellums and Dornan on the first line.” Prompting the unusual collaboration was announcement of an Air Force plan to trim the strength of Air National Guard units at the Channel Islands Air National Guard Base at Point Mugu in Ventura County, March Air Force Base in Riverside County and the Naval Air Station at Moffett Field in Santa Clara County.

“It is our judgment that California has suffered an unwarranted series of cutbacks in our National Guard programs over the past few years,” the letter signed by the congressional delegation said. “Given our constant population growth and the vast area of the state, these cutbacks for the California Air Guard simply are not justified.”

The Pentagon had no immediate response to the letter.

The Air Force has said it wants to cut the number of C-130E transport planes stationed at Channel Islands from 16 to 12, replace 24 F-4E fighter planes at March with 18 OA-10 observation/ground attack aircraft and finance four instead of five Blackhawk Marine rescue helicopters at Moffett Field. Figures on any troop reductions that would accompany the equipment cuts were not immediately available.

“This is not a military issue as such, it is a fairness issue,” Dornan said. California, with a population of more than 27 million people, has an Air National Guard with five flying units, Dornan said. Ohio, with less than 11 million people, has six, he said.

The more flying units, Dornan said, the easier it is for retired military personnel to serve in the Air National Guard, which they must do in order to meet the requirements for pensions. Generally, a member of the armed services must spend 20 years on active duty or in the guard to qualify for pension benefits, Dornan said.

Dornan, a former fighter pilot, said that in the late 1950s he had to commute from Southern California to an air base near Fresno to keep up his membership in the guard.

Dornan said he believes California has long been hurt by the inability of its disparate congressional delegation to speak with one voice on issues that affect the welfare of the entire state.

He quoted an Air Force general as telling him recently: “If you folks in California would ever get your act together and be unified, you could have whatever you want. . . . Right now you’re not even treated fairly.” He declined to name the general.

On this issue, neither Dornan nor Dellums had difficulty persuading like-minded colleagues to sign a letter endorsed by their philosophical counterparts, their offices said.