King-Hinds: Proposed CJMT activity will destroy Tinian

The proposed training activity under the U.S. Navy’s CNMI Joint Military Training program will literally destroy Tinian, according to Commonwealth Ports Authority chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds.

King-Hinds said the CJMT and the divert airfield are two completely different activities.

“We have been consistent in our position that we don’t object to training activities on Tinian as long as it is not harmful to the community,” said King-Hinds in response to Saipan Tribune’s request for comments about airspace protections issue.

She said the divert training activities on Tinian are both training and operational requirements for the U.S. Air Force “which are relatively benign.”

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the proposed CJMT program addresses theater-wide training needs in the Western Pacific and serves joint and allied training needs that extend beyond the requirements of Guam-based Marines.

Last May, the U.S. Department of Defense, the CPA, and the CNMI government signed a 40-year lease agreement worth $21.9 million for certain airport and seaport properties on Tinian for the U.S. Air Force’s divert airfield.

Now CPA feels it was blindsided by a new U.S. Navy request to the Federal Aviation Administration to place restrictions on the airspace of the Tinian International Airport. CPA finds it particularly galling that the U.S. Navy made the request directly with FAA and without consulting CPA and the CNMI.

King-Hinds said the Navy’s request to FAA presumes that they will be able to conduct their live training activities as proposed under the CNMT Environmental Impact Statement.

Right now, she said, the Navy is supposed to be revising the CJMT EIS to address the thousands of concerns raised by the people of the CNMI.

“This action basically tells us that the Navy doesn’t care about the people of Tinian,” she said.

Last April 30, Navy Secretary Richard W. Spencer requested the FAA administrator for unspecified but appropriate “relief” in the airspace protections over the Tinian International Airport.

Spencer’s request prompted King-Hinds to write Spencer last June 17, expressing that CPA is both surprised and “beyond disturbed” by his memorandum and the manner in which CPA received it.

“We don’t understand how anyone would think that CPA would find this acceptable. The request is ridiculous enough on its face,” King-Hinds said.

King-Hinds said Friday that Spencer did not reply to her letter as well as to the letter from the Tinian leadership.

Last Tuesday, the CPA board of directors unanimously passed a resolution opposing the Navy’s request to include the airspace around the Tinian International Airport in the restrictive area.

The CPA board of directors agreed that the removal of airspace protections over the Tinian International Airport creates many issues that the Navy failed to discuss or consider with CPA prior to the Navy sending its request.

Tinian Legislative Delegation chair Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Saipan), Tinian and Aguiguan Mayor Edwin P. Aldan, and Tinian Municipal Council chair Thomasa P. Mendiola also wrote acting FAA administrator Daniel K. Elwell recently to express their opposition to the Navy’s plan.

The elected Tinian leaders said it is their position that restricting airspace in and around Tinian will jeopardize health, safety, welfare, and economic wellbeing of the people of Tinian.