Panel Saves South Dakota Base

[David]

AP


A federal panel voted Friday to keep open Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, rejecting a Pentagon plan to close it.

The vote came at the start of what's expected to be the final day of deliberations by the nine-member base-closing commission.

The surprise decision on Ellsworth was a setback for Pentagon leaders, a blessing for South Dakotans who feared losing about 4,000 jobs, and a victory for Sen. John Thune and the state's other politicians who lobbied vigorously to save the base. Thune, a freshman Republican, unseated then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle partly on the strength of his claim he could help save the base.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds called it "a great day for South Dakota."

Ellsworth is home to half the nation's fleet of B1-B bombers. The Pentagon had wanted to move all the bombers to their other location, Dyess Air Foce Base in Texas.

But the commission found that closing Ellsworth wouldn't save any money over 20 years, and that it actually would cost nearly $20 million to move the planes to the Texas base. The Pentagon had projected saving $1.8 billion over two decades with the closure.

"We have no savings, we're essentially moving the airplanes from one very, very good base to another very, very good base, which are essentially equal," commissioner Harold Gehman said about the proposal.

Still to be decided is the fate of another major base ? Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, N.M. The commission was also expected to take up the revamping of the Air National Guard, a contentious proposal that some states have sued over.

Earlier Friday, the panel signed off on proposals to shift forces around Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

The panel must send its final report to President Bush by Sept. 8. The president can accept it, reject it or send it back for revisions. Congress also will have a chance to veto the plan in its entirety but it has not taken that step in four previous rounds of base closings. If ultimately approved, the changes would occur over the next six years.

In May, the Pentagon proposed closing or consolidating a record 62 major military bases and 775 smaller installations to save $48.8 billion over 20 years, make the services more efficient and reposition the armed forces.

While casting doubt on the estimated savings, the commission has largely endorsed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's effort to streamline support services across the Army, Navy and Air Force by merging similar programs scattered around small military facilities. However, the panel also bucked the Pentagon on a couple of large Navy base closures in New England that Rumsfeld wanted.

On Thursday, the commission plowed through dozens of Pentagon recommendations to consolidate education, medical, administrative and training programs and small facilities spread across the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Among the panel's recommendations was that the Army's historic Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C., be shut down and much of its staff and services moved to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Just before adjourning, the commissioners started in on the Air Force proposals, deciding to shutter the Onizuka Air Force Station in California and the Galena Airport Forward Operation Location in Alaska, which the Air Force uses for training and to land fighter jets when necessary.

Also in Alaska, the commission chose to keep Eielson Air Force Base operational, rejecting a Pentagon plan to sharply scale back personnel and aircraft there.

"The commission clearly saw our argument that its airspace and training facilities are too valuable and it is impractical to 'warm base' such a cold place," Gov. Frank Murkowski said.

Air Force officials say their proposal as a whole is designed to make the service more effective by consolidating both weapons systems and personnel as the force moves to a smaller but smarter aircraft fleet.

The Air National Guard plan would shift people, equipment and aircraft around at 54 or more sites where Guard units are stationed. Major Air Guard and Reserve facilities in Alaska, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would close. In some states, aircraft would be taken away from 25 Air Guard units. Those units would get other assignments such as expeditionary combat support roles. They also would retain their missions of aiding governors during statewide emergencies.

Shutting down Cannon would cost Clovis, N.M., a small town on the Texas-New Mexico line, nearly 3,000 jobs on the base and as many as 2,000 more related jobs in the community. The base that is home to four F-16 fighter squadrons represents a third of the local economy.

[revwardoc]

Otis ARB on Cape Cod in MA, is slated for closure. They're already making plans to move the fighter wing to Westover ARB in Springfield, MA. Original plans to expand Hanscom AFB have been shelved as being "stupid".