Alaska’s two U.S. senators were supposed to be at Fort Wainwright today with Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Instead, due to mechanical troubles, they were reduced to making videos describing what they would have said, if they’d had the opportunity to talk to him about keeping troops at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski filmed hers from an unadorned office cubicle.
“I was looking forward to joining Secretary of Defense Carter, along with Sen. Sullivan, in Fairbanks this afternoon,” she said, fatigue in her voice and a quilted vest on the shoulders.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, in jacket and tie, filmed his in a recording studio in the basement of the Senate, in front of an office set. He said he was greatly disappointed, too.
“So what I wanted to do was just show Alaskans and the media … the advocacy document right here,” he said, holding up a sheaf of papers, “that we will be briefing Sec. Carter on very soon.”
Sullivan and Murkowski saw Carter’s fortuitous stopover in Fairbanks as an opportunity to sell Carter on Alaska’s advantages to the military. Their hope is to reverse an Army decision to shrink a brigade combat team at JBER. The troop reduction would cost the state several thousand jobs.
Alaska’s strategic location is No. 1 on Sullivan’s list of advantages. But “strategic” does not mean “convenient.” Not today.
Senate business kept both senators up late the night before, with the last vote not until 3 a.m. Then, says Sullivan spokesman Mike Anderson, they went to Andrews Air Force Base, in nearby Maryland, for what was supposed to be a direct flight to Fairbanks on a military cargo plane. They waited for hours. Alas, the C-17 that was supposed to take them had mechanical difficulties. Sec. Carter, on a separate plane, flew north ahead of them. He departed Fairbanks before they could get there on commercial flights.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
