Corzine: End training in Pinelands

PRINCETON - Gov. Corzine yesterday called for the closure of the Warren Grove bombing range in the South Jersey Pinelands, where a military training exercise is believed to have sparked last week's wildfire that burned through more than 17,000 acres of forest.

Speaking to reporters during a wide-ranging question-and-answer session outside Drumthwacket, his official residence, Corzine said the public had been "threatened too many times" by incidents at the Air National Guard facility and he was "strongly in favor of its closing."

"I would like to hear the pros and cons in a rational presentation of the facts, but it's going to be a hard sell to me to convince me Warren Grove ought to stay open," Corzine said in the backyard of the mansion, which has become his office while he continues to recuperate from a serious April 12 highway wreck.

The military acknowledges that a flare dropped from an F-16 aircraft during a training exercise probably caused the fire that resulted in no deaths or major injuries, but tore through swaths of woods, forced the evacuation of 2,500 people, and destroyed a half-dozen homes. Air National Guard officials say the incident is under investigation.

The blaze, which was put out with the help of hundreds of firefighters and a lucky rainstorm, was the fifth serious accident in recent years for the gunnery range nestled among the pines in Ocean and Burlington Counties. In the last decade, the Air National Guard has dropped a bomb that caused another wildfire, strafed a nearby middle school, and crashed a fighter plane near the Garden State Parkway and a $16 million jet into the ocean.

Corzine's call to close the range added to the drumbeat of recent criticism for Warren Grove, which has conducted military training exercises since the 1940s, but whose practices have increasingly come under scrutiny as residences close in.

Corzine said he wasn't sure what he could do to influence the fate of the federal facility, over which he does not have jurisdiction. But he said there may be legal remedies he could pursue, and that he would seek advice from his lawyers.

At the very least, he said, he could "be a strong advocate" for closure as members of New Jersey's congressional delegation - to which he once belonged, as a U.S. senator - review the matter.

Yesterday, key members of that delegation appeared unwilling to take Corzine's side.

On Monday, U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) and Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) met in Washington with the Air National Guard and the Air Force, its parent organization, to demand changes to prevent future accidents. But the pair steered clear of endorsing Corzine's call to close the range, instead joining the Air National Guard in saying they wanted to give the Air Force time to complete its review of the incident - and draft recommendations for safety improvements.

In a statement, the New Jersey Air National Guard said it "shares Gov. Corzine's concern for the residents surrounding the Warren Grove range and we await the findings of the U.S. Air Force accident investigation board."

The review, headed by an out-of-state general in an effort to ensure impartiality, will determine what, if anything, went wrong with the training exercise with a view to making sure it never happens again. It is expected to last about 30 days.

In the meantime, the pilots involved have been grounded and training exercises involving the dropping of ordnance have been banned.

In a statement, Lautenberg said the Air Force had assured him "they are seriously reassessing safety at all levels. The bottom line is that the Guard needs to regain the confidence of the surrounding communities about safety at the range."

In a separate statement yesterday, Menendez said he had not ruled out calling for the facility's closure.

"I may come to the conclusion that closing the range is necessary, but I'm not there yet," Menendez said. "We have to determine if the training activities can be definitively reconciled with the safety of New Jersey residents, because public safety is the most important concern."

Congressman Jim Saxton (R., N.J.), whose district includes Warren Grove, said he, too, would await an analysis of procedures at the range aimed at ensuring "that such an incident like this does not happen again."

"The analysis should identify all possible future actions ranging from increased safety procedures to permanent closure and their impact on the National Guard's training capabilities," Saxton said in a statement.

Corzine said he would listen to all sides of the argument but added that "those folks who are going to argue that we ought to keep this open, I think have a very, very high hurdle to achieve." The public already had been put at risk too many times, he said.

He pointed to a November 2004 incident in which an F-16 accidentally fired on Little Egg Harbor Township Intermediate School during a night-time training exercise out of Warren Grove. The pilot was trying to use a laser-targeting device but squeezed the trigger too hard, firing the gun instead. The school was unoccupied at the time, and no one was injured.

Had the exercise occurred during the day, when school was in session, Corzine said, the range "would have been closed in a nanosecond."

"We're kind of in the 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' zone, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "I do believe the military has done everything they believe they can do to protect the environment and the neighborhood, but that hasn't been proven to be successful."

Maj. Gen. Glenn K. Rieth, the head of the National Guard in New Jersey, has described training at the range as "a vital function" for the nation.

Corzine said he wasn't opposed to relocating the range, but that any new site would have to keep the public's safety and security in mind.