Navy’s Port Hueneme Radar Facility

* I read with deep concern of decisions unfavorable to the use and modernization of the Surface Weapons Engineering Facility based partly on the Navy’s unwillingness to have a non-Department of Defense person participate in a public exposure assessment and a sentiment that such participation would improve the trustworthiness of the data.

For 65 years, the Navy has been a trustworthy neighbor, employer, defender and partner with the state of California and the citizens of Ventura County. Now, when there is no Cold War and enemy threats are less visible, the California Coastal Commission would discard a record of safety and integrity and deny the Navy the optimum use of its established systems. Months of foot-dragging have taken place because of opposition from a few with vested real estate interests who are using the Navy’s requirement for weapons tests and performance secrecy to political advantage.

Times may have changed, but to hamper a facility with a record of safety is unconscionable in terms of public responsibility, national defense and application of electronic safety standards. I am alarmed by this latest turn of events and by the lack of confidence displayed in the Navy’s engineers and scientists.

I strongly urge your readers to correspond with the California Coastal Commission at 45 Freemont, Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94105 and request that it to approve means whereby the Naval Surface Warfare Center may do its work in the SWEF, with reasonable disclosure and assured technical safety, and show some faith in the Navy as a respected technical institution.

ROBERT J. WARNAGIERIS

Ventura

* The California Coastal Commission recently rejected the results of a scientific study on the safety of the U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Engineering Facility. This study by a panel of five independent scientists determined that the SWEF is safe. The panel members and their study process had previously been approved by the Coastal Commission, but now the commission is adding additional requirements, essentially starting it all over again.

I am a registered professional engineer as well as a mayor, and the action of the Coastal Commission is well beyond my understanding. I urge the Coastal Commission to reconsider and accept the findings of the scientific panel.

MURRAY ROSENBLUTH

Mayor

Port Hueneme

* I was involved with facility maintenance at Port Hueneme Division Naval Surface Warfare Center from April 1988 until my retirement as facilities operations manager in December 1999.

During that period, I had oversight for two major exterior painting projects, two major re-roofing projects, numerous building repairs and quarterly pest-control activities at the SWEF. At all times, coordination and cooperation of the SWEF personnel was maintained to assure that all safety practices were in place and that no contractor of Navy personnel would be exposed to danger.

Therefore, I submit that safety precautions at the SWEF are excellent and that continued operations should be permitted.

NORMAN P. MILLER

Port Hueneme

* The patch of coastal land occupied by the SWEF is very small; its contribution to the defense of our country is incalculable.

Operation of the SWEF is the linchpin to the preservation of Navy jobs and contracts in the Ventura County area.

More importantly, the SWEF helps to ensure safe, effective and affordable warfare systems for surface combat ships at sea--ships that some of our sons and daughters may someday be required to ride into battle.

STEPHEN R. HERTING

Camarillo

* As a maestro of demagoguery, Supervisor Frank Schillo, with Supervisor John Flynn playing second violin, has orchestrated a number against the California Coastal Commission and its decision regarding the Navy’s radar installation at Port Hueneme.

As his main motif, Schillo plays again and again the theme that the radars are harmless, as attested to by any number of former Navy personnel and the small brass section of the city of Port Hueneme functionaries. In the crescendo, Schillo avers that a group of crazies--a washboard band from Silver Strand--will be satisfied with nothing that the Navy does.

The Coastal Commission is hardly a Silver Strand instrument. The commission has decided that the radars pose a threat to residents, beach habitues, wildlife and shipping if they are aimed in the wrong direction and should be monitored by someone other than Navy personnel.

The commission adopted this score not because of the rackety Silver Stranders but because three members of a quintet--solo artists in the field of micro electromagnetic rays--made those notations. Nevertheless, the Navy has turned a deaf ear and refuses to listen to any suggested overtures made by the commission.

As to the coda to this opus, Maestro Schillo will conduct the climax from “Gotterdammerung.”

MARY D. DODD

Oxnard