Sliceback,
All very good and valid points. I'll stick with "I'm a FNG with zero experience". I probably misunderstood the Captain. Maybe what he actually said was that yes they intend on keeping Phoenix open for a long time and in a separate breath said that their next target is Asia.
It was a 25 minute friendly discussion just before my interview so my cranium was on the interview and less about the future bases. I'll go back to coloring now.
Rule #1 "Never pass up the opportunity to shut the $@() up!"
How could I forget that as a FNG! My bad.