[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 164 (Thursday, November 18, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S14755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                VIEQUES

  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I have been a little disturbed not knowing 
the certainty of the schedule and how long we will have to get some 
things done at the last minute. I want to bring up one issue that has 
to be discussed briefly, and that is the issue of the range that has 
been used for 58 years on the island of Vieques located 6 miles off the 
shores of Puerto Rico.
  I am concerned about this because we started using this range 58 
years ago. We have become dependent upon it because it is the only 
range we can use that offers an integrated three-level type of 
training--first, high-altitude bombing; second, the type of protection 
that comes from the ships to the shore using live fire; and third, the 
Marine expeditionary amphibious movements. All three of those can be 
done simultaneously and have been done successfully over the last 58 
years.
  The problem we have with this range is that there is no place else in 
the Western Hemisphere that we can actually give the training to our 
troops. Right, now we have deployed into the Persian Gulf the U.S.S. 
Kennedy. Because this President put a moratorium on training in 
Vieques, only half of those deployed on the U.S.S. Kennedy have ever 
had the necessary training should they have to become involved in 
combat.
  We have scheduled for the 18th of February the deployment of the 
U.S.S. Eisenhower Battle Group. If this battle group goes through the 
Mediterranean and goes to the Persian Gulf, the chances are better than 
50-50 they will see combat. If we do not allow them to have the 
training on the island of Vieques prior to their deployment, they will 
have to go into combat very likely without ever having any live 
ordnance training. This goes for the pilots flying the F-18s and the F-
14s that will be deployed off the U.S.S. Eisenhower.
  I was there 3 weeks ago and watched them during their training, but 
they were unable to use live ordnances and use that range. It goes for 
the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the others who would be deployed 
at the same time.
  I would like to quote, if I could, Gen. Wes Clark. Of course, he is 
one for whom we all have a great deal of respect. We watched the way he 
worked commanding the European forces and the NATO forces. He said:

       The live fire training that our forces were exposed to at 
     training ranges such as Vieques helped ensure that the forces 
     assigned to this theater--

  We are talking about Kosovo, those 78, 79 days--

       were ready-on-arrival and prepared to fight, win and 
     survive.

  What General Clark is saying is, we were successful. Even though we 
should not have been in Kosovo to start with, once we made that 
decision, we were successful in dropping our cruise missiles in there 
and our bombs because of the training those pilots had on the island of 
Vieques.
  Capt. James Stark, Jr., the commanding officer of the Roosevelt Roads 
Naval Station, said:

       When you steam off to battle you're either ready or you're 
     not. If you're not, that means casualties. That means more 
     POWs. That means less precision and longer campaigns. You pay 
     a price for all this in war, and that price is blood.

  We are talking about American blood. I am very proud of all the 
military, uniformed and others. This is the first time in the years I 
have served in the Senate that they have been willing to stand up for 
something they know is right, not knowing for sure where the President 
is going to be on this issue.
  The President has imposed a moratorium on training on the island of 
Vieques. We are going to try our best to encourage him, for the lives 
of Americans, to allow us to use it to train those people who are on 
the U.S.S. Eisenhower, ready to be deployed.
  Richard Danzig, the Secretary of the Navy, said:

       Only by providing this preparation can we fairly ask our 
     service members to put their lives at risk.

  In a joint statement between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant of the Marine 
Corps, they said: Vieques provides integrated live-fire training 
``critical to our readiness,'' and the failure to provide for adequate 
live-fire training for our naval forces before deployment will place 
those forces at unacceptably high risk during deployment.

  This is military language to mean casualties, those who can be killed 
in action.
  I am proud of Admiral Johnson, the Chief of Naval Operations, and 
General Jones, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, when they say: 
Without the ability to train on Vieques, the U.S.S. Eisenhower Battle 
Group and the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit scheduled for deployment 
in February 2000 would not be ready for such deployment ``without 
greatly increasing the risk to those men and women who we ask to go in 
harm's way.''
  Lastly, Admiral Murphy, the Commander of the Sixth Fleet of the Navy, 
said: The loss of training on Vieques would ``cost American lives.''
  It is a very serious thing. I sometimes listen to the complaints we 
hear from some of the Puerto Ricans, but mostly from the people of the 
island of Vieques, who say: Wait a minute. How would you like to have 
bombs dropped and live ordnances fired where you are?
  You can't do anything about that. They actually have a 10-mile buffer 
range between the bombing range and where people live.
  I happen to represent the State of Oklahoma. We have a very fine 
organization there called Fort Sill, where we do all our artillery 
training. I have said on the floor here several times before that, 
while on Vieques they have a 10-mile buffer zone, we have only a 1-mile 
buffer zone in the State of Oklahoma between a population of 100,000 
people living in Lawton and the live-fire range.
  So let me just wind up and conclude by saying that many of us, 
including Senator Warner, the chairman of our Armed Services Committee, 
are asking the President and pleading with him to work out some type of 
arrangement to, at the very least during this interim while we are in 
recess, provide for training on the island of Vieques because if that 
does not happen, we will lose American lives.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Inhofe). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DURBIN. Would the Chair be kind enough to tell me what the order 
of business is?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are in morning business until the hour of 
12 o'clock and under the minority's time.
  Mr. DURBIN. I understand that my colleague, Senator Kennedy from 
Massachusetts, will be joining me on the floor shortly. I will 
certainly yield at that point.

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