Fewer Bases Face Closure
USA TODAY
May 12, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's latest list of proposed military base closures set to be released Friday is expected to be less devastating to military communities than originally feared.

The Defense Department will propose closing fewer active-duty bases than many had originally projected, according to a senior military official who has seen a draft of the list. The official asked to remain anonymous because of a signed confidentiality agreement.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is still tinkering with the list that he'll forward to a base closure commission, the official added.

In the four previous rounds of closures -- 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995 -- the Department of Defense closed 97 major domestic bases. In the largest round of closures, in 1993, the department targeted 28 major bases. This time, the official said, there will be fewer.

Instead, the Defense Department is likely to transfer more operations to other bases than in previous rounds. Some National Guard and Reserve bases around the United States are likely to be closed and their functions shifted to active-duty bases elsewhere, the official and defense analysts say. Realignment typically means that part of one base is moved to another but the base remains open.

Excess room The Pentagon has said it has 20% to 25% more room than it needs for the current size of the military, a statement that had sparked lobbying campaigns in communities to keep local bases open. But Rumsfeld also said that only about 20% of the excess would be targeted. The Pentagon doesn't plan to eliminate all of its surplus installations because it wants to accommodate future growth.

There are 3,727 military sites in the United States, according to the Defense Department. Of those, 95 are considered large bases, 99 are medium-sized sites and the rest are classified as small.

Rumsfeld's desire to get the military branches to cooperate more closely. Such efforts are a cornerstone of his plan to transform the nation's fighting forces.

Rumsfeld must present his recommendations to the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure Commission no later than Monday. That panel, chaired by former Veterans Affairs secretary Anthony Principi, will conduct hearings and issue its own report to President Bush by Sept. 8. Bush must accept or reject the list in total. If he approves, the list moves to Congress for approval.

No radical moves Military bases are one place that parochialism often holds sway. Each service has its own installations, weapons systems, training methods and culture.

Experts say that Rumsfeld, who has taken an unprecedented role in overseeing the base closure process, is not likely to make radical moves such as putting members of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force together in "joint" combat bases.

What's more likely, says Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, is a consolidation of functions such as research labs and repair and logistics facilities from higher-cost parts of the country to areas that are considered more affordable.

That means more bases could move to the South, which is now home to many Army and Marine Corps bases and is "also uniformly supportive of the military," Thompson says.

This round is also likely to feature a new dimension -- the further merging of the active duty and Guard and Reserve, which for decades have operated on separate facilities.

Chris Hellman, a base closure analyst with the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, says that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- where Guardsmen and reservists have played a major role -- illustrate how closely the active military and Guard and Reserve have become. "We've always had this artificial barrier between Reserve and active facilities. Why are they not operating out of active bases?" he says.