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Dozen more bases may be added to closure list
By News Article
Army Times
Monday, Jul 4, 2005

WASHINGTON The commission reviewing the Pentagon's recommendations of bases it wants to close or restructure is considering adding more than a dozen more facilities to the list.

The facilities that could be targeted are in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, North Carolina, North Dakota and Washington, D.C.

The release Friday of the new list — formally, a request to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for additional information — is required before commissioners can visit the installations on fact-finding missions. Commissioners will vote July 19 on whether to add the bases to the list, which eventually goes to Congress and President Bush for final approval.

Among the questions raised by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission are ones boosters of their local military facilities have been raising at BRAC hearings across the country.

For example, the commissioners want more information on whether Pentagon plans to shut down or eliminate aircraft from several Air National Guard bases would hurt homeland security and whether state National Guard officials were properly consulted.

The commissioners also want to know whether the Pentagon's plan to merge several Defense Finance and Accounting Services offices is the most cost-effective option.

"This doesn't mean we will add a base (to the Pentagon recommendations) in all instances," said Robert McCreary, a spokesman for the commission. "We're just asking for more information, for comparison reasons."

In past base-closing rounds, most installations on the "add list" have survived the process.

But rules governing this round of closings make it more difficult than ever for commissioners to expand on the Pentagon's list. Approval from seven of nine members is required to add a base to the closings list. In past rounds, only a majority was needed.

Also, two commissioners must visit any base recommended to be added to the list, and another vote by at least seven members would be needed to add bases to the final list.

The commission is reviewing a Pentagon proposal to close 33 major U.S. bases and restructure 29 others in an effort to increase efficiency and transform the military to a more modern force.

Anthony J. Principi, chairman of the commission, said facts gathered during the panel's hearings and base visits, as well as public comments, gave rise to questions about the bases on the review list.

Also Friday, a Government Accountability Office report was released that said the Department of Defense's process for conducting its analysis "was generally logical, reasoned and well-documented."

But government auditors questioned whether costs of reshuffling military operations were underestimated and whether communities that would gain jobs have the schools and housing needed.

In addition to questioning the Pentagon's plans for Air National Guard bases and accounting offices, the commission wants to examine:

  • Naval Shipyard Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which Navy officials said they considered closing instead of Naval Shipyard Portsmouth, N.H. The Navy has said Pearl Harbor's strategic position in the Pacific is key, but the commission wants to re-examine that decision.

  • Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine, which the Pentagon recommended for shrinking but not closing. The commission asked defense officials why the base shouldn't close completely.

  • The Navy's Master Jet Base at Naval Air Station Oceana, Va., which has been cited as a closing possibility by commissioners because of encroaching local development. The commission will examine the possibility of moving Oceana's flight operations to Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., or to Moody Air Force Base, Ga.

  • Galena Airport Forward Operating Location, Alaska, one of two alert bases in Alaska for air-defense jets — which the commission may consider one too many.

  • Pope Air Force Base, N.C., which is recommended to merge with neighboring Fort Bragg.

  • Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., planned to lose its aircraft but remain open, apparently as part of an Air Force plan to base unmanned aircraft there. The commission asked for more details.

  • Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. Marine officials told the commission in May they had considered consolidating recruit training elsewhere but ultimately dropped the idea. The new list reopens that possibility.

  • The Navy's Broadway Complex in downtown San Diego. The commission's list suggests that closing the complex could boost security and give San Diego officials redevelopment options.

  • The Naval Postgraduate School and Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., and the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio. Commissioners want to examine the possibility of merging defense graduate schools in one location.

  • Army, Navy and Air Force medical commands in the Washington, D.C., area, which the commission will consider merging.
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