CRANE – The dedication and work ethic of people like engineer James Stewart, who heads the spectrum warfare systems department at Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center, brought the nation's defense secretary to the southern Indiana military installation Wednesday afternoon.
That, and an invitation from Joe Donnelly, who wanted to give U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter “a first-hand look at how Hoosiers help the United States Armed Forces remain the most powerful fighting force the world has ever known.”
So he sent a letter asking him to visit Crane, and Carter said he would. He is the first defense secretary to visit the base since it was established as a bomb production facility at the start of World War II. The 100-square-mile wooded site had been planned as a state park until the war changed its course.
On Wednesday, Donnelly — the Democratic U.S. senator from Indiana — led Carter on a tour of Building No. 2692, where the focus is on innovation and people from soldiers to scientists discuss and develop technology and devices that solve problems.
Things such as aircraft decoy flares, battlefield illumination candles shot into the sky, special weapons holsters and an ATV with a silent motor are developed and built for the war effort. It's the Special Warfare and Expeditionary Systems department, where discussing equipment problems results in prototypes that solve war-front issues. "Work here is done in an extraordinary fashion," Donnelly told a flock of reporters.
Carter agreed. "This is a national treasure," he said, thanking Donnelly "for knowing the importance of this place." He called Crane's military reach "so wide and deep." And he said the base will continue to serve a role in battling terrorism. "Our job is to destroy ISIL in Iraq and Syria," he said. "It is essential to destroy the idea there could be a state based on this ideology."
Carter, a 61-year-old physicist and former Harvard science professor, arrived at Crane familiar with the military logistics and electronic warfare focus there. Before being appointed deputy secretary of defense in 2011, Carter had been in charge of overseeing and developing the tools of modern warfare for the defense department, including thousands of mine-resistant vehicles that saved the lives of many soldiers riding inside.