33 Major Bases on the Block for Closure

From DefenseNews

33 Major Bases on the Block in Biggest BRAC Round Yet

By GORDON TROWBRIDGE

The Pentagon asked on Friday to shut down 180 installations across the country in the first round of base closings since 1995, and the fifth since 1988.

This round is the biggest yet, with recommendations that fall heaviest on National Guard and Reserve facilities, commercial office space and a handful of large, politically sensitive bases.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the moves, if approved, would unfold over six years starting next year and would save almost $50 billion over 20 years.

“Our current arrangements, designed for the Cold War, must give way to the new demands of the war against extremism and other evolving 21st Century challenges,” Rumsfeld said.

Even before the list was released publicly at a Pentagon news conference, lawmakers were reacting — often angrily — to a list that would close 33 major bases and dozens of smaller facilities.

Another 29 large installations and hundreds of small bases would remain open but scaled down, with significant losses of military or civilian personnel.

Collectively, Rumsfeld’s plan would result in a net loss of 29,005 military and civilian jobs at domestic installations. The plan would involve pulling 218,570 military and civilian positions out of some U.S. bases while adding 189,565 positions to others.

Among the affected bases are reserve-component facilities in nearly every state. About 175 Army Reserve facilities, for example, will close, and consolidate into about 125 new joint reserve centers that the Pentagon plans to establish.

Those closings are likely to spark worries of longer travel to drill weekends for reservists, but Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said the moves are designed to meet changing demographics across the country.

“We hope it will aid recruiting and retention,” Blum said.

The Pentagon also will shift thousands of military and civilian workers out of leased office space across the country, in what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has described as a security-driven effort to move more offices inside base gates.

Rumsfeld said Thursday that the Pentagon expects the moves to save nearly $50 billion over the next 20 years by eliminating unneeded infrastructure.

The list now goes to an independent Base Realignment and Closure Commission. In the past, such commissions typically have altered 10 percent to 15 percent of the Pentagon’s recommendations.

Once the commission finishes work — by Sept. 8 — it will send its completed recommendations to President Bush, who must accept or reject the list in its entirety by Sept. 23. If he accepts it, the list then goes to Congress for another all-or-nothing vote, probably in October or November.

A look at some of the specific Pentagon proposals for each service:

Navy

The proposal to close Submarine Base New London, Conn., and move its submarines to bases in Virginia and Georgia, would involve the largest job loss of any single closing — as many as 15,000, including ripple effects, according to documents accompanying the Defense Department recommendations.

That makes this proposal as politically explosive as any on the list. On Friday, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., attacked the move as “an insult to our history.” Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, also said he opposed the plan.

Army

Two Georgia posts — Fort Gillem and Fort McPherson — would close under the plan. But overall, Army posts will grow, fed by the return of forces from bases in Germany and Korea and by the Army’s ongoing effort to reorganize itself into smaller, more deployable brigades.

Among the bases gaining: Fort Bliss, Texas (more than 11,000 soldiers) and Fort Benning, Ga. (more than 9,000). Historic Fort Monroe, Va., is again recommended for shutdown, after surviving repeated attempts in previous rounds to close it.

Air Force

Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., and Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., are among the largest Air Force bases scheduled for closing.

Ellsworth’s B-1 Lancer bombers would move to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, consolidating the service’s smaller B-1 fleet in one location. Cannon’s closing, like a number of moves involving reserve and Guard bases, is a symptom of the Air Force’s shrinking fleet of F-16 Falcon fighters.

Marine Corps

The Marine Corps’ comparatively small base structure sees few major changes, especially on active-duty bases.

Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., would gain about 4,200 personnel — nearly three-quarters of them civilians — in part to move a series of Defense Department intelligence and law-enforcement agencies to the base.