Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
In May 2005, a federal committee charged with reducing the nation’s military installations recommended that Cannon Air Force Base be closed.
Local, state and federal lawmakers joined the community to rally behind the base in hopes of saving it. Area residents wrote hundreds of letters and thousands lined the streets of the city when the federal Base Closure and Realignment Committee came to town for a public hearing.
If the local efforts had a vocal leader, his name was Bill Richardson.
New Mexico’s governor never claimed he saved Cannon, but he clearly deserves a lot of credit for the 27th Special Operations Wing that makes its home here today.
Richardson died Friday at age 75. This seems a good time to remind newcomers of his role in keeping Cannon alive. History will mostly remember him as a two-term New Mexico governor and United Nations ambassador who worked tirelessly – and often successfully – to secure the release of Americans detained by foreign enemies.
The Clovis-Portales area – which voted for him twice -- will remember him as a relentless advocate for the local air base that was born a glider-training facility during World War II. We appreciated his efforts even before they ultimately proved successful.
“It is fitting today that residents welcome (Richardson) back to Clovis,” the Clovis News Journal editorial board wrote Aug. 11, 2005. “He’s been in Curry and Roosevelt counties so much in the last year he should be made an honorary resident of both counties and they could add him to the tax rolls.”
On that date, he’d returned to announce Clovis Community College President Beverlee McClure had been named the state’s first higher education secretary.
Most of his other visits – before and after – were tied to Cannon.
“Words of thanks should be directed to (Richardson) … for his constant push in recent months to keep Cannon Air Force Base from being closed by Department of Defense and Air Force leaders,” the editorial continued.
“Whether you like his politics or not, if you didn’t know it before, his efforts to save Cannon are evidence that Richardson is the most astute politician in New Mexico history since Pete Domenici was a young pup in the U.S. Senate.
“Sure, all of New Mexico’s congressional delegation has picked up the Cannon gauntlet and carried it forward. But no one has done it like the governor.”
While New Mexico senators Domenici and Jeff Bingaman were disturbingly absent from the final days of the BRAC hearings in Washington, Richardson was there, lobbying committee members every minute he found them available.
His efforts seemed to fail at the time. The BRAC committee voted to close Cannon. But officials agreed to look for a new mission for our base. Richardson declared it a partial victory.
“I actually feel positive about the outcome,” he said about a week after the decision. “…(W)e did get something – not everything we wanted or deserved, but we did get something.”
Something turned into today’s Special Ops mission. He gave credit to the congressional delegation for making that happen in the end, which it deserved. But all of us who remember BRAC remember Richardson working side by side with the rest of the community, clearing the path that led to today’s Cannon.
Thank you, sir, for your life of service.
David Stevens is editor and publisher of Clovis Media Inc. Email him at:
