WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Friday proposed closing Brooks City-Base, Naval Station Ingleside and two other major Texas installations as part of a sweeping transformation of the armed services that will have a resounding impact nationwide.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recommended the elimination of 180 installations, including 33 major bases, as part of an effort to save $48.8 billion in spending and retool the military for the war on terror.
“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.
Several states would be hard hit by the Pentagon recommendations, which now go to an independent panel that has scheduled hearings on the closure list next week.
In Texas, officials immediately questioned the value of closing Brooks and Ingleside, as well as Red River Army Depot and the Lone Star Ammunition Plant, both in Texarkana.
The Pentagon also wants to close its portion of Ellington Field near Houston, scrapping an Air Force reserve F-16 wing there.
“This recommendation list is a first step in the base realignment process and is by no means final,” said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
The biggest blow to the state would be the closure of Ingleside, a facility built with $50 million in funds from Texas and Nueces County in the 1980s.
Shifting the missions at Ingleside to facilities in California and other ports would cost the Coastal Bend region about 2,200 jobs.
“Our all-consuming job,” Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, said, “is to do everything in our power to get our South Texas bases off the list.”
Texarkana would see a loss of 2,650 jobs with the closure Red River Army Depot and the Lone Star Ammunition Plant.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced the creation of a “strike force” to help communities facing a base closure.
Perry said the goal would be to convince officials of the targeted installations' importance in the war on terror “so that those bases remain open.”
Closure of four of Texas' 17 major active-duty military installations would crimp the $49 billion in annual federal spending that adds to the state's economy.
The state also stands to lose federal spending at reserve and guard facilities, like Ellington Field.
The Department of Defense estimated that Texas will see a net increase of 6,150 military and civilian jobs, with Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio (9,364) and Fort Bliss (11,501) showing the largest gains.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, said the expansion at Fort Bliss “is the result of a solid strategy and lots of hard work by our community.”
The Pentagon also proposed a major restructuring of its military medicine capabilities, with the largest transformation coming from a consolidation of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington with National Naval Medical Center in Maryland.
Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston would become a San Antonio regional medical center with the transfer of the 59th Medical Wing at Lackland AFB and missions from realigned bases, including Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls.
The two trauma centers at BAMC and Wilford Hall in San Antonio would be combined at the regional center, reducing operating costs.
Pentagon officials put the price tag of closing and realigning bases at $24 billion, starting in 2006 when the six-year process of shuttering facilities begins.
Eliminating the facilities and realigning missions to cut duplication would save $48.8 billion, with $5.5 billion in recurring annual savings, Pentagon officials said.
The Bush administration supported the cuts, the fifth round of closures and realignments since 1988, saying they are necessary to restructure the military and prepare for new threats.
“This process is important to making sure we continue to have the best-trained, best-equipped and best military in the world to address the threats that we face in this day and age,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
The Bush administration and the Pentagon have pledged economic assistance for communities hard hit by the closures.
The Labor Department will offer job training and the Defense Department has pledged economic assistance to help cities recover from the loss of a base.
Scores of communities – and states – would be affected by the closures and realignments.
Georgia would lose 4,200 jobs with the closure of Fort McPherson, and Maine would lose nearly 7,000 jobs from realignment of Brunswick Naval Air Station and closure of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and a defense accounting office.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, called the recommendations outrageous “and devastating.”
Other high-profile closure recommendations include the Navy's submarine base in Groton, Conn. – costing nearly 8,500 jobs – and Naval Station Pascagoula, a target in the 1995 round.
Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said the closures would have a disproportionate economic impact on Corpus Christi, Northern Virginia and Mississippi.
“I believe the national security analysis that underlies these decisions must be compelling when basing decisions are likely to yield draconian economic consequences in communities that have long supported our military,” Skelton said.
Many of the closure recommendations singled out reserve and National Guard units.
Gen. Steven Blum, director of the National Guard Bureau, said consolidating both Army and Air Guard units would better help governors protect citizenry as well as aid Army and Air Force commanders overseas.
The Pentagon recommended closing seven guard and reserve centers in Texas, including El Paso, Ellington (Houston), Lufkin, Marshall, New Braunfels and two in Dallas.
But members of the independent base closure commission have asked for a legal ruling on the closing of guard units after governors from Illinois and other states vowed a legal challenge to the proposals.
The Pentagon has said it has authority to close facilities and consolidate units, even though many are located on publicly owned lands like airports.
Hearings on the base closure proposals are scheduled next week, with Rumsfeld appearing before the panel on Monday to defend the list.
Commission Chairman Anthony Principi said the panel would not be a “rubber stamp” for the Pentagon, and the hearings would “ensure a voice for the people affected by the DoD's proposals.”
Texas officials will tour Lone Star state communities facing closures this weekend.
San Antonio leaders are expected to attend the hearings this week and have begun plotting strategy to remove Brooks City-Base from the closure list – a task it accomplished in 1995.
“We want to hear the justification,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, whose congressional district includes the South San Antonio base.
The base closure commission has until Sept. 8 to craft a final version of the list and submit it to President Bush, who can either accept or reject the roster in its entirety.
Principi has vowed to hold 15 regional hearings to give communities a chance to make the case for local installations and argue against closure or realignment.
In the four previous closure rounds, the Pentagon closed 97 major installations.
Seven of those bases were located in Texas – Naval Air Station Galveston, Bergstrom AFB in Austin, Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, Naval Air Station Chase Field in Beeville, Naval Air Station Dallas, Reese AFB in Lubbock and Kelly AFB in San Antonio.
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