Alamogordo Daily News
By Michael Johnson, Managing Editor
http://www.alamogordonews.com/ci_15679450

Early morning breakfast diners at the Waffle & Pancake Shoppe probably didn't expect to see Lt. Gov. Diane Denish when they walked through the front door of the restaurant Tuesday.

Denish, who is vying to become the first female governor of New Mexico in the November general election, graciously paused for a quick camera phone photograph with an employee while trying to eat a small plate of biscuits and gravy.

"Let me swallow this first," she said before posing for the camera. "If I don't, it will be on Facebook in about two seconds."

Denish didn't spend Tuesday night in Alamogordo so she could enjoy biscuits and gravy at Steve Brockett's restaurant. She wanted to calm fears within the community about the Department of Defense's announcement last Thursday that Holloman Air Force Base will be losing its F-22 Raptor squadrons.

The location of her visit was a natural choice. It's a place where many Alamogordoans stop for a quick bite to eat and a cup of coffee or to exchange the latest town gossip before going to work.

Nothing spreads faster than word-of-mouth, especially in Alamogordo, which may be another reason why Denish picked the restaurant to get her message out.

Denish said the removal of the F-22s and the subsequent arrival of the much-older F-16 Fighting Falcon should be seen as an opportunity.

"I think the news took us all by surprise," she said. "This is a good opportunity to think about the future and the F-35."

Denish said that although Holloman is losing the F-22 and wasn't selected as a training base for the F-35, there is still a chance to land the coveted jet mission in the Tularosa Basin.

"Oh, we're going to fight like crazy to get the F-35," she said. "The F-22s are gone. I haven't thought about it from the perspective of getting all the F-16s, but it would be a smart business decision for the DOD to bring all of them to one place. That might be the first place to start because the F-35s are down the road."

The F-35s are not expected to arrive at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. - the DOD's chosen destination - until about 2015, and Denish said many things can happen in five years. While she's not promising to get the F-35s for Holloman, she said there is a chance to change a few minds.

"That will depend on what happens with some other bases," she said. "It was interesting to me that this whole process was so under the radar. We stay in touch with the (congressional) delegation. I really feel if they had known it was coming, I know they would have hustled to keep it."

Denish said the F-22s "won't be leaving tomorrow" now that people have had a chance to catch their breath and digest the gravity of the situation.

"The F-22s will be here for a while, and the F-16s will come. I think we have some real opportunities created by it. That's what we do; we go to work on those opportunities."

Denish said the F-16 Fighting Falcon is "the work horse of the Air Force" and the nation's budget constraints should lengthen the aircraft's lifespan.

"Any time you make a substantial change, people will - at first glance - be worried," she said. "We have to grab a hold of the opportunity and think of it as an opportunity."

Denish said Alamogordo and other southern New Mexico communities need to diversify their economies. She noted the region's aerospace abilities, as well as the need to focus on small business job creation.

"We need to expand on aerospace abilities here," she said. "The spaceport will create opportunities for us to use White Sands Missile Range, Alamogordo and Las Cruces as a triangle to expand on that.

"Small job creation happens primarily in our small business community. Frankly, as we go out there and get the biscuit companies and the flower companies, we will always need to think about how to stabilize the underpinning of the community which is the base and small businesses."

But Denish also noted that Holloman pumps about $1.1 million into the economies of Alamogordo and Otero County.

"Unless you live in a base community, you really don't understand the economic value of the bases to New Mexico," she said.

Another way to diversify the economy, Denish said, is to start creating alternative forms of energy.

"In this part of the state, we have a chance to create geothermal energy. That is going to be the wave of the future," she said. "We need to do that. We need to take advantage of our alternative energies in New Mexico. (Alamogordo) is one of the places where we can actually do that."

Denish said the government can "supply the tools" if the community and its leaders are willing to forge ahead with it.

Still, the importance of retaining the military in the region isn't lost on Denish, which is why she said she plans to ensure that the Base Planning Commission stays intact.

"I want to reassure people that my commitment is to continue the Base Planning Commission and make sure we're working hard and maintaining our relationships not only across the state, but with the Pentagon and the Department of Defense," she said.

Contact Michael Johnson at mjohnson@alamogordonews.com.