Fleet Commander to Visit Mugu

Making an urgent plea on behalf of the Point Mugu Navy base, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) on Tuesday urged the commanding officer of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet to relocate four squadrons of planes to Point Mugu rather than to a recommended base near Fresno.

Gallegly snagged Adm. Archie Clemins for some personal lobbying when the admiral’s jet made a refueling stop in San Diego on a cross-country flight bound for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

“He was extremely receptive,” Gallegly said after the 30-minute meeting at North Island Naval Base near San Diego. “He made a commitment to us that he will physically come to Point Mugu and tour the operation prior to any decision being made. . . . He said no decision has been made, and we are still in the running.”

Clemins is expected to come to Ventura County in mid-January, said Gallegly, who was accompanied on his lobbying expedition by Jack Dodd, a retired vice commander at Point Mugu. The admiral’s planned trip is significant, Gallegly said, because it would be only the second Mugu visit by a Pacific Fleet commander in 50 years.

Gallegly, Point Mugu’s leaders and local Navy boosters have been recruiting four squadrons of E2-C Hawkeye aircraft that are scheduled to leave Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego when it closes next year.

That lobbying campaign was dealt a serious blow earlier this month when Navy officials recommended the Hawkeye squadrons join the Pacific Fleet’s F/A-18 Hornet squadrons at the Lemoore Naval Air Station south of Fresno.

Point Mugu’s supporters have since redoubled their efforts, hoping to reverse the decision at a higher level and thus fortify the shrinking base with the squadrons’ 1,100 personnel and fat payroll.

“We have been making a pitch at lower levels,” said Michael Wootton, Gallegly’s chief of staff. But the congressman wanted to make a personal pitch to the admiral in charge of the Pacific Fleet.

“Ultimately, it is going to be his decision,” Wootton said.

Gallegly has taken issue with the Navy’s recommendation, stressing that moving the Hawkeyes to Point Mugu would be a considerably cheaper option than sending them to Lemoore. And they would be twice as close to the aircraft carriers whose home port is in San Diego. The Hawkeyes function as flying aircraft controllers for aircraft carrier battle groups.

The congressman said it would save nearly $30 million to pick Point Mugu over other alternatives being considered, including the naval air stations at Lemoore, El Centro near San Diego and North Island.

Gallegly also boasts that Ventura County would welcome the squadrons, offering their personnel ample, low-cost housing and one of the safest, low-crime areas in the nation.

“The entire community, including the city of Camarillo, which is in closest proximity to the base, is eager to support an increased Navy presence in Ventura County,” Gallegly wrote to Clemins earlier this month.

Point Mugu, which was briefly considered for closure last year, has lost various squadrons of aircraft to transfers and consolidations in recent years, Gallegly notes. The result is that the base has plenty of available aircraft hangars to accommodate the four Hawkeye squadrons.

Gallegly is not the only local official wooing Clemins, who recently took command of the Pacific Fleet.

Frank Schillo, chairman of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, recently wrote a letter suggesting that the admiral take a hard look at Point Mugu.

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He also argued that the county would provide a high quality of life to sailors. He attempted to punch holes in arguments against Point Mugu that say that relocating the squadron would require a review of environmental impacts to the wetlands and local air quality.

Moreover, Schillo said, he thinks Point Mugu makes the best sense on economic grounds when the defense budget is shrinking.

“We think the taxpayers would be best served because the cost of operations is lower here than any of the other alternatives,” Schillo said.

Times correspondent Nick Green contributed to this story.