"I think they came in pretty much set," Lee said. "This is my conclusion. They pretty much said that they want to kick this can down the road and take a look at it some more.

I think the governor and the Congressional delegation gave them some serious doubts about their course of action. We told them that was the wrong tack to compare Pearl Harbor to Portsmouth (Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.) Your real quandary should be you as commission members for the security of America should you be closing down Portsmouth at all. Just picking on Pearl Harbor is a deviation from the main course of action."

But Gov. Linda Lingle said she wouldn't even want to guess whether Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard will be voted to be added to the list of possible closures tomorrow.

In the meeting with Gen. Lee, Lingle, Hawai'i's Congressional delegation and Mayor Mufi Hannemann, Lingle said she believes the commissioners listened to the Hawai'i representatives with an open mind.

"They conceded that the emerging threats to our nation are in the East Asia area," Lingle said. "Since that is the crux of what we're saying about military value, I think that was important for us to hear."

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawai'i) said there is no excess capacity for fleet maintenance anywhere so "If we are wise, instead of closing up Portsmouth or any other shipyard, we should maintain all of them. If there is any time when we need stealthy weapons systems, now is the time and submarines are the best."