Oregon Public Broadcasting

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he will announce “very soon” whether he intends to rebid the Air Force tanker contract that Boeing lost. Gates made his comments  Tuesday  during a visit to the Fort Lewis Army Base.

It was part of a two-day tour of Northwest military installations. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins was there.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, flanked by soldiers and Stryker vehicles, speaks to reporters Tuesday at Fort Lewis

Last month, the Government Accountability Office -- or GAO -- issued a scathing report on the Air Force tanker deal.

This is the $40 billion contract to build new aerial refueling planes. The GAO said the Air Force bungled how it awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman and a European consortium and not Boeing.

Defense Secretary Gates says he takes that report seriously.

Robert Gates: “Particularly their identification of some deficiencies in the contract process and I expect to announce the way forward very soon.”

Two key questions are whether Gates will order the tanker contract to be completely rebid. And whether the Air Force would be in charge of handling a new bidding process.

Gates answered reporter questions under a camouflage tent. His backdrop was four Strykers – the now signature vehicle of the Iraq War and Fort Lewis.

Earlier Gates toured the hi-tech, eight-wheeled, armored cars. Sgt. Brady Melear commands a Stryker and briefed the Secretary on how the vehicle performs.

He did not get a chance to tell Gates what he thinks of prolonged and repeated deployments. But this is how Sgt. Melear responds when I ask.

Brady Melear: “The longer deployment, the less morale any soldier is going to have. The longer you stay your morale is going to drop. You keep me there for 15 months, I want to go home. You keep us there for a year, a year is long enough.”

Melear has done one tour in Iraq and says he was lucky to come home after 12 months. He expects to be deployed again.

During his visit, Secretary Gates also met with injured soldiers and had lunch with airmen at neighboring McChord Air Force Base.

Gates keeps a house on Big Lake near Mount Vernon in Skagit County. That’s where he spent the Fourth of July holiday and plans to retire someday.

It was also announced Tuesday that the Everett-based aircraft carrier Lincoln is being moved away from Iraq and closer to Afghanistan. Secretary Gates says that’s because violence is declining in Iraq and increasing in Afghanistan.