Keith Fairfax (third from left) poses after receiving award from Southern Maryland Navy Alliance.

St. Mary’s City, MD — The Navy’s future lies in the hands of Congress. That was the conclusion by the Assistant Secretary of Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) Sean Stackley (shown at left) during the keynote address at the annual meeting Oct. 13 of the Southern Maryland Navy Alliance.

Stackley went through a list of the Navy’s strengths, opportunities and challenges during his speech at the annual dinner at Historic St. Mary’s City. But in the end it all comes down to Congress and what it does with the budget, continuing resolution and sequestration, he said, He urged alliance members to be proactive.

During his talk Stackley used Rep. Steny Hoyer [D – 5th District] as an example. The assistant secretary said Hoyer called him about the proposed wind turbine on the Eastern Shore and talked for 45 minutes about its potential negative effects on the base’s mission. He said it was extremely rare that members of Congress are that knowledgeable about an issue. Later that week Rep. Dutch Rupersberger also called Stackley at Hoyer’s request.

The end result, according to Stackley: “It played out in Pax River’s favor. The rest is history.” The statement was met with a loud round of applause from the attendees.

The Southern Maryland Navy Alliance has more than 70 members and is, according to President Ken Farquhar, one of the oldest in the country. They include defense contractors and other business and community members. Originally formed in 1990 in response to an earlier BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) initiative, the alliance along with Rep. Hoyer helped bring NAVAIR to the base, thus helping to seal its future.

Farquhar listed seven alliance initiatives in his opening remarks to the attendees assembled for the dinner under a tent next the reconstructed statehouse. They are:

• Working with the Navy to improve cost of operations;
• Advocating for research, development, test and evaluation, the bases core mission;
• Developing a new consensus about what should occur at the base in the future;
• Supporting the base and area as a Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) “center of excellence;”
• Assisting in initiatives to secure non-Navy work;
• Continue to emphasize that encroachment is “unacceptable;” and
• Work on partnerships and shared services to save money.

Before the dinner a special award was presented to Keith Fairfax, who has the honorary title of mayor of Lexington Park. Fairfax joined the alliance several years after its founding and was a former president. The award to Fairfax was presented by the alliance’s vice president, Brian Norris.

Fairfax, a longtime member of the Bay District Volunteer Fire Department and its current chaplain, asked for a moment of silence for the motorcyclist who had been killed earlier in the day in an accident on Route 235.

Stackley led off his address by noting the work done at Pax River every day that is facilitated by the moving to Pax River of programs formerly located at Crystal City, VA. He used the problems with the V-22 program as an example of one positive resolution. “Everyone came together collaboratively to work the issue,” he said.

Of what is done at Pax River, Stackley said, “This is a proven model. It needs to be maintained and perfected.” The model he said includes working together both inside and outside the base’s gates. He said the alliance was a main force in that effort.

The assistant secretary said everyone assembled under the tent had the same four desires in common–protect the nation, taking care of the men and women in uniform, exemplify the highest ideals in the constitution, and protect the taxpayer.

Stackley said the Navy today is all over the world on the sea and in the air. At any one time more than 100 ships are deployed. Of the Navy and the Marine Corps, he said they are “the most capable fighting force in the world today.”

He said the superiority at sea demands superiority in science and technology to keep up with the rest of the world. Meanwhile other nations, such as China and Russia, are also improving. “We need to pick up the pace,” he concluded.
Everything comes back to the budget, which he said is flat or “actually the budget goes down.”

“We do not know what lies ahead, even though we are building the budget for next year,” he said. In building the budget, the Navy and its partners in private industry, he said, have to get the requirements right, including stability of design to save money and at the same time strengthen the acquisition process

And that led Stackley’s verbal tour of the Navy today to the halls of Congress. Everyone under the tent will be waiting to see what happens. He urged them to be proactive.  “We need help in 2016,” he said.

Contact Dick Myers at dick.myers@thebaynet.com