Three More Bases Could Be Closed

[David]

AP


The Base Realignment and Closure commission voted Tuesday to add three military facilities in California, Maine and Virginia to the list of hundreds of domestic bases that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has proposed closing and shrinking.

The Navy Broadway Complex in San Diego, the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine, and the Naval Master Jet Base at the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia were added to the list of facilities to be closed. The commission also was voting on whether to add bases in nine other states and Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, the commission voted to keep Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota off a closure list. By a vote of 6 to 3, the nine-member panel effectively ended any practical possibility of the base being closed in the foreseeable future.

The San Diego facility has headquarters for Navy operations in the Southwest, while the Brunswick air base is the last active-duty Defense Department airfield in New England and one of Maine's largest employers, with nearly 4,900 military and civilian workers. The Naval Master Jet Base in Virginia, which the Pentagon proposed trimming in size, would be reduced even further or shut down, the base-closing commission voted.

Before voting on additions, Chairman Anthony Principi cautioned that adding a base to the list "does not necessarily mean that the base will be realigned or closed" but will simply allow the panel to further analyze those bases' usefulness.

"Our deliberations today may add more bases for further consideration, not because we have determined that we need to close more bases than the secretary of defense has recommended, but because we want to make sure the best possible closure or realignment choices are made," Principi said.

In a reprieve for California, the commission voted against putting the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on the closure list even though several commissioners had wanted to consider merging it with the service's other recruiting facility in Parris Island, S.C.

The Naval Shipyard at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii also was saved, although by a slim margin. The vote was five in favor of adding it to the list and four against adding it. However, seven commissioners had to vote in the affirmative for it to be added.

Overall, the panel was expected to cast about a dozen votes Tuesday on whether to increase the number of facilities that may be closed or compressed in size.

The Navy wanted to take all the planes out of the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine, but keep the base.

The votes show the independent commission's willingness to diverge from the plan Rumsfeld submitted in May, when he proposed closing or reducing forces at 62 major domestic bases and hundreds of smaller installations from coast to coast.

The panel's actions were sure to ignite a new round of lobbying by communities whose military facilities were being target for possible closure or shrinkage.

The commission was slated to vote on whether to add to list for possible closure: Moody Air Force Base in Georgia and the Galena Airport Forward Operating Location in Alaska.

They also were voting on whether to consider shutting down, rather than simply scaling back forces as the Pentagon proposed, at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. The Brunswick, Maine, Naval Air Station had been slated for downsizing but it now will be considered for closure, given the commission's vote.

Final decisions about the fate of bases on the list, including any added Tuesday, won't be made until next month.

The nine-member commission must send its list with any necessary revisions to the president in September.

Rumsfeld has proposed a sweeping restructuring that would close or reduce forces at 62 major domestic bases and hundreds of smaller installations. The first such effort in a decade, the reorganization is meant to save money and streamline operations of the four service branches.

During the Pentagon's first round of base closings in May, Rumsfeld said, "Those changes are more necessary, not less, during" wartime. Rumsfeld added that, "The department is in need of change and adjustment. The current arrangement, designed for the Cold War, must give way to new demands of the war against extremism and other evolving challenges in the world."

At this stage, adding bases to the Pentagon's proposed list of closures or consolidations will allow the commission to conduct public hearings, visit those sites and collect data, in some situations to make direct comparisons with bases that perform similar missions and are slated for closure.

The commission also was to vote whether to consider merging the defense accounting services from three locations and the professional development education services from three locations. It also was voting to consider whether to create a joint medical command headquarters by merging operations at four facilities. It takes votes from seven of nine commission members to add a base to the list. The commission then will have to reaffirm each decision in August, with seven of nine votes. Other bases on the Pentagon's list can be removed then with five of nine votes.

Commissioners also have expressed serious reservations with the Pentagon's plan to disband or move dozens of Air National Guard units. However, that issue was not slated to be voted on Tuesday and commissioners were working behind the scenes to determine what to do with that part of the proposal.