by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
A plan to put Tillie Fowler’s name on a state-of-the-art communications center at Mayport Naval Station has drawn the support of some of the area’s highest ranking military officials as a fitting tribute to one of Jacksonville’s toughest and most effective military advocates.
The local military community has been looking for a way to commemorate Fowler since the former Jacksonville congresswoman died of a brain hemorrhage March 2. Rear Adm. Annette Brown, commander of Navy Region Southeast, considered several facilities before throwing her support behind Mayport’s $10 million Harbor Operations building, according to an e-mail circulated among area military leaders.
The Mayport building was the best choice because the 17,000 square foot facility was built as part of an ongoing campaign to keep the base viable in the face of Pentagon base closures, said Brown. It was an effort that Fowler pushed hard for, both as a member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee and as a civilian lobbyist.
The decision will be left up to Secretary of the Navy Gordon England. Local military leaders expect England to approve the plan. Brown recommended a dedication as soon as March 23, when Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark visits Mayport to decommission the USS Spruance.
That timeframe could be a little tight. Mayor John Peyton’s military liaison, Dan McCarthy, said a sign couldn’t be made in time. He recommended the dedication wait until Clark comes back in June. Mayport’s commanding officer, Capt. Charles King, told him the June date would work better.
King was one of the Harbor Operations building’s first backers. He told McCarthy that Fowler was directly responsible for construction. Local leaders had been seeking a facility since 1973 to consolidate the base’s spread out operations offices. But it wasn’t until Fowler backed the building from her seat on the Armed Services Committee that the project was funded.
In the Navy, naming ships after people is fairly common. Not so for buildings said McCarthy.
“I’ve seen it very rarely in my 30 years in and around the military,” said McCarthy. “Go on that base and you won’t see a John F. Kennedy building or a Martin Luther King building. These were people that fought their whole lives for worthy causes. That should give you an idea of the esteem that the military held for Tillie.”
The mayor’s office is looking for ways the City could similarly commemorate Fowler, said McCarthy. One possibility would be to name the Wonderwood Expressway after her, he said.
Like the Harbor Operations building, the expressway was a project that Fowler fought hard for in Congress. Both projects were part of Fowler’s drive throughout the 1990s to prepare Mayport to berth a nuclear aircraft carrier. Fowler thought Mayport had to be nuclear capable to survive as the Navy phased out older carriers. About a week after Fowler died, CNO Clark told a congressional committee that the Navy supported putting a nuclear carrier in Mayport.