Carolina Business  January 2011 Issue 

Cherry Point is Craven County’s Economic Dynamo by Edward Ellis 

The much booed, ballyhooed and belabored national economic collapse - now called by some the "Great Recession" - has pressed down hard in Craven County. While conceding that times are tough, especially in terms of statewide unemployment, area leaders agree that the recession's impact has been muted here by the steady stream of federal dollars flowing through the massive Marine Corps jet base at Cherry Point.

The economic boost amounts to $2.2 billion, with a "b", per year, according to official government accountings.

The number of 2009 jobs, civilian and military, total 5,365 and 9,845 respectively for an annual salary flow of $1.09 billion. That makes the average salary for those 15,210 jobs $72 thousand, far above national averages.

 Those federal paychecks are regularly direct-deposited into the region's bank accounts belonging to not only active-duty military and civilian workers, but also to thousands of retirees and their survivors uncounted in the numbers above. The recession-proof proceeds make the cash registers ring daily at grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters and car dealerships, to name a few of the ultimate beneficiaries.

And in an overall down economy and with the North Carolina recently leading the nation in jobs lost, the employment trend at Cherry Point is actually up slightly over the past years.

"MCAS Cherry Point and Fleet Readiness Center-East are the hidden gems in the Department of Defense," said Stephanie Duncan, Executive Director of the Havelock Chamber of Commerce. "Thank goodness, eastern North Carolina has the treasure map."

With its huge economic impact in the local area, Duncan believes "Cherry Point and FRC-East fuel our economy and have kept the area out of economic decline and turmoil."

And that's not just in the immediate vicinity.

"The impact is felt in more areas than just Havelock and Craven County," she said. "It is also felt in Carteret, Pamlico, Jones, Onslow, Pitt and Lenoir counties."

Cherry Point spokesman Mike Barton said, "The most obvious local value is the economic impact, particularly in terms of jobs and money spent by Cherry Point people who live and work in the area. I don't know the formula, but you know that the money spent from salaries and construction and other goods and services from the air station is passed from person to person to person in the natural flow of money like this: Sgt. Jones buys a car from Joe's Ford who pays his employees, who buy groceries, and so forth."

The Marine Corps base has been paying these cash-flow dividends for seven decades.

Begun just before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the federal instatllation sprawled over more than 8,000 acres of former farmland, forest and swamp. Because of the entrance of the United States into World War II, Cherry Point was built in a hurry for the then-lofty sum of $82 million. Its construction during the early 1940's provided as many as 8,000 sorely needed Depression-era jobs, bringing Craven County's impoverished workforce out of the log woods, farm fields and away from the numerous moonshine stills that once dotted the landscape.

In 1941, Havelock was a bump in the road consisting of several dozen scattered farms, a couple of county stores and a one-man part-time post office smaller than a single-car garage. It was located, however, at the critical junction of a main cross-state highway and the Atlantic & East Carolina Railway. It was on that railway, and through a secondhand freight depot quickly moved to Havelock from nearby Riverdale, that all the necessary construction materials, goods and personnel would flow. Like Rip Van Winkle, that place sprang from its slumber. By the time the base was completed a few years later - buzzing with activity - it was the duty station of 20,000 Marines and sailors.

In 2011, Havelock's in-city air station is the home of the Second Marine Air Wing and Cherry Point is considered one of the best all-weather jet bases in the world. Its runways are large enough to qualify as an auxiliary landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle. All told, the military installation and its associated support locations now occupy more than 29,000 acres of eastern North Carolina.

Havelock itself vies with New Bern to be the county's largest city with the 2009 population estimate for each hovering around 23,000.

As a public relations and marketing executive, Dan M. "Sonny" Roberts spends most days dealing with military issues. Through his New Bern-based Impact Communications, LLC., Roberts and his team have access to all the latest numbers and information about government dollars flowing through Craven County.

He said this year's $184 million budget for Cherry Point understates the value of the base in several ways, both in dollars and in human terms. The figure, for example, does not include the Fleet Readiness Center-East which is the largest industrial employer east of I-51. Begun in the 1940's as an aircraft assembly and repair facility, FRC-East is now a huge, modern complex with its own annual payroll of nearly $300 million.

Additional Cherry Point-related economic boosts come from construction contracts, military purchasing, education, maintenance and service contracts, travel, medical expenditures and utility purchases.

In human terms, Roberts stressed that the base's contribution goes deeper than the valuable dollars it adds to the economiy.

 "Cherry Point personnel and families are part of this community," he said. "Beyond economics, they're a vital part of our schools, churches, everything. They participate in it all. They bring family and personal assets that cannot be measured.

Roberts called the working relationship between the military and civilian communities "outstanding." He said that everyone works "hand-in-hand" to communicate, solve problems and lend assistance. Referring to the nickname of Cherry Point's famour twin-rotor green and orange search and rescue helicopter, Roberts said, "Pedro is a great example. It has saved many lives here. We help each other any way we can."

Base officials shared information on recent employment trends. The 2009 figures indicate the total workforce increased from 2008 to 2009 by 1,226. The official numbers have not been published yet for 2010, but "unofficially" the number of jobs changed by "an extremely small amount." Most of the 2008-2009 increase was due to the Marine Corp's increase over the past few years in active duty numbers during the ramp up for the wars in the Middle East. Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg saw much larger increases during the same period.

As for long-anticipated, much discussed future gorwth, the jury is still out. Plans and rumors of plans have circulated for years regarding new and additional squadrons of jets for Cherry Point. A huge contingent of Navy planes from Cecil Field in Florida, originally set for transfer here in the early 1990's, finally settled instead at Virginia's Oceana Naval Air Station. Since then plans for additional squadrons of "Super Hornets" have come and gone. The next big hope is a basing plan for the new F-35B Join Strike Fighter announced December 11, 2010, by Navy Secretary Ray Maybus.

Under the plan, Cherry Point's eight squadrons, totaling 128 of the F-35B Lightning II fighters, will begin to arrive in 2020. Area politicians had urged that 176 jets in 11 squadrons be stationed at the local base, but rejoiced nonetheless with the Navy's decision.

In her official statement on the matter, New Bern-native Governor Beverly Purdue said: "We want North Carolina to get the maximum economic benefit from the squadrons and to remind the Corps that they will always have a home in Cherry Point."

Still, knowledgeable sources disagree on the F-35's ultimate impact.

On the optimistic side there might be an estimated 8.5 percent increase in the air station workforce by the end of the next decade, if there is no slippage in the program schedule. This employment increase would result in a long-term gain of $57.4 million in annual payroll income. In addition, there may be an expenditure of $572 million over seven years for related pre-construction, with a peak year of construction that would create 1,649 jobs and $58.4 million in labor income.

Others close to the matter fear that the new high-tech aircraft may result in no net gain and simply replace Cherry Point's aging fleet of A6 Intruders, AV-8 Harriers and F-18 Hornets, all of which had been scheduled for replacement before 2020.

The more pessimistic observers suggest that all military programs--the F-35 and even FRC-East and Cherry Point itself - may face serious future challenges due to the politics of the current U.S. economic mess.

Since Cherry Point's inception, attempts have been made to close FRC-East and a couple of moves have been made at doing away with the Marine Corps as a whole. So far, all have failed. The Marine Corps' population has risen and fallen through the years along with that of MCAS Cherry Point. At times there have been as many as 20,000 military personnel here. During the Vietnam era the count topped 14,000. Today, it is 70 percent of that. Still Cherry Point survives and the surrounding communities benefit as the federal dollars continue to roll through.

But, the Havelock Chamber's Duncan echoed other sentiments that "Cherry Point contributes more than dollars."

"It also brings diverse and well-educated individuals and their families to the area to live, work and contribute," she said.

Base spokesman Mike Barton confirmed some key data for this article. In the process, he shared another insight well worth repeating.

"The people who work here-not just the Marines - are very proud of their role in supporting the Marine war fighter," Barton noted. "They are a diverse group of individuals who make up a distinct community - people who, for the most part, have dedicated most, if not all, of their adult lives in service of their country. The work they do here has a direct impact on the Marine Corps' ongoing ability to train its aviators to wage war on the nation's enemies."