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Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Letter

VP-91 not primarily search and rescue

I question the accuracy of the facts reported by Natasha Collins in her article about Moffett in the Nov. 5 issue.

Last time I checked, VP-91 was not a search-and-rescue wing or a squadron. VP squadrons do have a search-and-rescue mission, but their primary mission is maritime patrol, which in layman's terms equals anti-submarine and anti-ship warfare.

The proposals that are before the Secretary of Defense do not advocate moving VP-91; they advocate disestablishing the squadron. If VP-91 is disestablished, the Navy's Reserve Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department will serve only one other on-base customer, VR-55 (Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 55). Chances are that the situation will prove uneconomical. VR-55, without any intermediate maintenance support, would probably have to move. If all three of those organizations move, the Naval Air Reserve in Santa Clara won't really serve a purpose, so in all reality it would (or should) evaporate.

With the prospect of potentially all the Navy organizations leaving Moffett before 2000, NASA transferring its aircraft from Moffett and the movement of many of Onizuka's organizations and functions to Colorado Springs, NASA will be left with a huge liability: a huge airfield with lots of facilities with no paying tenants, or even users.

Chip Cannan
Sunnyvale

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 19, 1997.
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