The full text of American Consul General Mr. Robert Farmer's speech given at the official US Naval Air Station Decommissioning Ceremony last Friday.

Your Excellency Lord Waddington, Mr. Premier, Captain Bryan, men and women of the US Naval Air Station Bermuda: First, I want to say that, in the time I have been in Bermuda, I have had the chance to get to know many of you who serve at the Naval Air Station. I have been deeply impressed by your dedication to duty, your readiness for hard work, your sense of professionalism and your generosity. I feel honoured to have been asked to participate in this ceremony.

Though some of you will be here for a few more months, this ceremony marks the official decommissioning of the US Naval Air Station Bermuda. It also officially marks the end of almost 55 years of American Military presence in Bermuda, 55 years of building, fighting and defending the security of the United States, Bermuda, the United Kingdom, and the allies. We are here today to mark an end to that era. A sad day and yet a happy day. A day in which you and all the men and women who served here before you, can take pride. For this day marks the successful completion of a mission that has spanned more than half a century. The bible, in Eccelsiastes, tells us that there is a tide, a cycle in the affairs of mankind. That everything has its time and its place -- birth and death, want and plenty, laughter and sorrow, love and hate, peace and war.

This base was born of war, the most brutal and destructive war the world has ever experienced. In September of 1940, when the United States was still at peace while Great Britain was fighting a desperate battle, the two governments agreed that the US would be granted base rights at a number of sites in the western Atlantic. In conjunction with this agreement, America was given, as an outright gift, a 99-year lease for the establishment of bases in Bermuda. In March 1941 the American flag first flew over what would become the Naval Operating Base and later the Naval Annex in Great Sound. In July of 1941, the flag was raised here at Kindley Field. By December of that year, just as the United States entered World War Two. the airfield began operations.

Naval seaplanes from Great Sound and army airforce planes based at Kindley played a key role in defeating the German submarine threat in the Western Atlantic and keeping open our lines of communication with our European allies.

In the later years of the war, the bases in Bermuda served as essential staging areas for the movement of ships and aircraft between America and Europe.

The fall of the axis powers was quickly followed by a NEW threat to the security of the United States and its allies, a new challenge to liberty. By the end of the 1940s, the United States had responded to this challenge by adopting a new national security policy. For decades thereafter, the US Military and Diplomatic establishments would be dedicated to the twin tasks of blunting the ideological thrust of communism and containing the expansionist tendencies of Soviet imperialism.

As in the Second World War, the bases here in Bermuda played a vital role in this twilight struggle, this cold war. In the 1950s and 60s, planes operating from Kindley Air Force Base refuelled the bombers of the strategic air command and thus served as an essential part of America's Nuclear Deterrent Forces. In the 1960s, the range of SAC Bombers increased, thus lessening the air force's need for Kindley Airfield. But by that time, the growing Soviet Maritime threat made the Bermuda base essential to the Navy. In the 70s and 80s, Orions operating from Kindley patrolled the waters around Bermuda, monitored the movements of Soviet submarines, and helped protect the United States from the threat of sea-launched ballistic missile attack.

And then, after more than four decades, the policy of containment succeeded.

In a breathtakingly short interval, the Soviet Union collapsed, a victim of its failed ideology and the inability of its authoritarian system to adapt to the modern world.

For all of its dangers and all of its human and material costs, the cold war had given American foreign policy SIMPLICITY and CLARITY of purpose. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Polestar which had guided policy for so long was gone. Even now, more than three and a half years after the final collapse of Soviet Communism, American Foreign and defence policies are in a state of transition.

It's not that we can't decide or enunciate our goals. That's simple. The United States wants a world of free societies and open markets in the belief that democratic Government, individual liberty, and capitalism are the prerequisites for peace and economic prosperity. But in this much more complex post-cold-war world, it is not at all clear what is the best way to reach these goals. The end of the cold war has given the United States more freedom of action on the world stage. It has freed us from automatically being pulled by our rivalry with the Soviet Union into purely local crises. And the end of the Cold War has seen the rebirth of ethnic conflicts that once seemed long dead in such places as the former Soviet Union, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. The United States, along with every other nation, is still feeling its way in this new world. And in terms of security policy, we have not yet reached a national consensus on when we should involve ourselves in foreign problems, when and what types of economic and diplomatic measures should be employed and when military means should be utilised.

But one thing became clear early on. The politico-military structure that America built to fight the cold war, our force structure and our forward-basing policy, had suddenly become outmoded. It would need to be altered to deal with a new, somewhat safer, but vastly more intricate world.

The closure of the bases in Bermuda is part of that process of alteration.

What does all this mean for you in the Navy? If I may return to the bible, Eccelsiastes also tells us: "In the good day enjoy good things and beware beforehand the evil day.'' I think that all of us realise that the end of the Cold War does not mean the end of threats, serious threats to the national security of the United States and our allies. It is a guarantee that there will be evil days ahead, that new challenges to liberty and democratic government will arise, probably from unexpected corners of the glove. The American Military, as always, will play a major role in meeting such challenges. And the prime missions of the Navy -- to protect American security and to project American power abroad -- will remain as vital in the future as they were in the past.

In September, when the Navy completes its withdrawal, the official United States presence in Bermuda will become quite limited. US Customs, Immigration and the Agricultural service will remain at the Civil Air Terminal. The NASA Tracking Station will remain on Coopers Island and the Consulate will continue to function.

Those of us remaining behind will miss the very many friends we made with all of you and we will be hard put to operate without the cooperation and very significant support you have given us.

On a political level, the departure of the Navy means that we US Government officials remaining will be faced with a very new reality in American-Bermudian relations. Ever since the bases were established, the American Military presence have been so large on these relatively small islands and issues of national security so important that politico-military questions have tended to eclipse other aspects of Bermudian-American relations. A new relationship will now develop, dominated largely by cultural factors and mutually-beneficial economic interaction. The United States is Bermuda's largest trading partner. Around two-thirds of the islands imports originate in the United States and close to 500,000 tourists, about 85 percent of the visitors to the Islands, are Americans. Many of the companies in the Islands, growing international business sector are either American-owned or do substantial business with the United States. Most significantly, the common devotion to liberty, human rights, democratic government and open markets that our peoples share will insure that America and Bermuda remain close and friendly atlantic neighbours.

In passing through the transition to this new relationship, we who remain here will be able to tap the great reservoir of goodwill that the Navy has created and is leaving behind. The US Navy has been a very good neighbour to Bermuda and the men and women of the Naval Air Station have been true ambassadors of all the best aspects of America. In addition to guaranteeing the security of these islands, for the last 49 years you have provided Bermuda with its sole air link to the world. You have provided an air-sea rescue service which has saved the lives of Americans and Bermudians alike. You have given the Islands its weather service. You maintained and operated Longbird Bridge. You opened your facilities to Bermuda athletes, sports teams and clubs and you made your college extension classes available to Bermudians seeking higher education.

You even shared your McDonalds. By doing all this, you formed a model relationship with Bermuda which has been consistently friendly and invariably marked by mutual respect and mutual support.

Your actions over this past year, your hard work, the very cooperative spirit you've displayed, and your determination to effect a seamless transfer of responsibility for the operation and maintenance of this airfield, are prime examples of this good-neighbourliness.

I have been very impressed, as I am sure the people of these islands will be, by the extra efforts you have made to ensure that the base lands are as clean and in as good a condition as possible when they are turned over to Bermuda.

In the last year, you have removed around a thousand tons of twisted, rusty metal, the debris of fifty years of operations, from the shoreline north of Ruth's Point. You've filled in and capped off the burn pits near there and are far along in transforming what once was a landfill into parkland. You've conducted a large-scale programme to empty, clean and remove underground storage tanks. You created a nature preserve and a natural trail on Coopers Island and implemented programmes to protect endangered birdlife that is unique to these Islands.

To the people of Bermuda, the Navy's withdrawal from the islands present significant challenges, but even greater opportunities. When the US Military built the bases in the early 1940's, Bermudians gave up just under 700 acres of land. When the US Navy completes it's withdrawal in a few months, Bermudians will receive twice that amount back, over 1,460 acres. The US Government will retain some 14 acres of land under the terms of the 1941 leased bases agreement, primarily for the maintenance of the NASA Tracking Station on Coopers Island. All the rest of the land acquired under the 1941 agreement will be turned back to Bermuda without any conditions or reservations on the part of the US Government. We are not asking for any right of re-entry or any residual rights over the land we are turning over. The people of Bermuda will reacquire all the rights originally transferred under the 1941 agreement over the lands we are returning, including full possession and use.

In addition, the Navy is leaving behind an infrastructure that will be of tremendous value to these islands. Bermuda will inherit a first-class airfield, along with the radars, electrical systems, fire service and other infrastructure needed to run it. Bermuda will acquire the Roger B. Chaffee School, a facility which I can say from personal observation is the equal to any school on the island, along with its complete library. The Navy is leaving behind a medical building, a media centre, stores, historic buildings, a wharf, piers, an industrial area, housing that can accommodate hundreds of families and some very nice and scenic beaches.

There will be of course costs, probably significant costs, in taking over responsibility for operation of the airfield and in converting military facilities to civilian purposes. But the economic potential of the base lands far exceeds these costs. Bermudians have survived over the centuries by being able to take advantage of economic opportunities. The base lands we are returning represent approximately one-tenth of the Islands' landmass. I am certain that Bermudians will be quick to seize the economic opportunities which will arise from having these base lands returned to them 44 and a half years ahead of schedule. Before I end, I want to leave you with a very simple message: Thank You. Thank you to her Majesty's Government for having made us a gift of the right to construct and maintain military bases in these islands.

Thank you to the Bermudians who gave up their lands and their homes for our mutual defence and to all the people on these islands who have been so friendly and supportive for all this time. And finally, to the men and women of the Naval Air Station Bermuda, to you and to all the sailors, airmen and soldiers who served here before you, for all you have done to protect the security of the United States, Bermuda, the United Kingdom, and our allies, for your steadfastness and dedication to duty, for standing guard on these islands for over half a century.