Base Closures

I was both angered and horrified by your story on base closures (Dec. 5). To suggest that the process has "generally worked well" is as inane as it is untrue. The process has worked about as well as a three-legged racehorse. Invaluable training and maintenance facilities have been forever lost in the mad race for short-term savings. If you would take the time to talk with officers and planners in the field, rather than the out-of-touch, office-sequestered "experts," you'd find this to be true.

For five decades, shotgun enthusiasts were able to visit the Miramar military base for target practice and skeet shooting. In 2008, 95,000 rounds were fired by members and guests of the San Diego Shotgun Sports Assn., which ran a 29-acre range on the base. Now the military has closed the facility out of concern for the toxic contamination caused by years of lead shotgun pellets landing in a 13-acre "overshot" area next to the range. The issue has provoked an unusual clash between the Marine Corps and possibly its biggest supporter in Congress, Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Alpine)

The Russian military Saturday suspended the closure of its two military bases in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, saying it was acting to protect its citizens there as relations between the two countries spiraled downward in the midst of a spy scandal. Russia reacted angrily to the arrest Wednesday of five Russian military officers. Four of the Russians have been ordered held for two months while investigations continue; the fifth was released Thursday for lack of evidence.

The Russian military Saturday suspended the closure of its two military bases in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, saying it was acting to protect its citizens there as relations between the two countries spiraled downward in the midst of a spy scandal. Russia reacted angrily to the arrest Wednesday of five Russian military officers. Four of the Russians have been ordered held for two months while investigations continue; the fifth was released Thursday for lack of evidence.

The Honduran army's closure of the main bases used by Nicaraguan rebels has severely hampered the guerrillas' operations in northern Nicaragua, U.S. officials said Friday. Three weeks after the Hondurans ordered the anti-Sandinista rebels to evacuate the bases along their southern border with Nicaragua, the contras' ability to move men and supplies across the frontier remains restricted, according to officials with access to U.S. intelligence reports on the area.

President Clinton on Wednesday postponed a decision on the proposed closing of 79 military bases but Administration officials predicted that after a day of additional study he would accept the plan this morning. Clinton, whose reelection prospects could be damaged by base closures in California, spent time examining plans to turn over to private contractors aircraft maintenance at McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento and Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, aides said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, facing resistance from lawmakers protecting local military programs, argued for closing bases and slashing the B-1 bomber force to save money. Rumsfeld told lawmakers that failure to reduce Cold War-era bomber fleets and close bases would "send a damaging signal" as the military looks for savings. Rumsfeld said the bombers are 20 years old, not stealthy, intended for a fight the nation is no longer fighting and "not viable in a conflict today."

California's congressional delegation is mobilizing to block yet another threatened series of base closures, with many members asserting that the state took an unfair beating in the last three rounds and that it's somebody else's turn. Lawmakers are wiser now for having watched the economic fallout from the last three rounds of closures, which shut down or realigned 29 of California's military installations.

The nation's senior military officer on Friday defended the latest round of military base closures as a painful step that "has to be done" if the armed services are to maintain their strength amid major budget cuts. In speeches in Sacramento and in Los Angeles--both areas threatened by new military closures--Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that defense budget cutbacks will force deeper cuts in military personnel if unneeded installations are not closed.

Little opposition was offered Wednesday as a commission studying military base closures took testimony on a Pentagon recommendation to shut down the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station. In fact, Tustin City Councilwoman Leslie Anne Pontious told the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission that the city would not protest a move to shut down the base, if that is what President Bush and Congress want.

Ted K. Bradshaw, a UC Davis professor who helped numerous California communities understand that the economic challenges associated with military base closures were generally not cataclysmic, died Aug. 5 while running near his Oakland home. He was 63. The cause of death was believed to be a heart attack, a university spokeswoman said. Bradshaw had spent two decades at UC Berkeley as an associate research sociologist before joining UC Davis in 1995.

The House voted Thursday to allow the first round of U.S. military base closures and consolidations in a decade, clearing the way for facilities across the country to start shutting their doors as early as next month. In a 324-85 vote, the House refused to veto the final report of the 2005 base closing commission, meaning the report seems all but certain to become law in mid-November. Targeted facilities then would have six years to close and shift forces as required under the report.

The panel deciding the fate of U.S. military bases voted Thursday to spare two California institutes but went along with a Pentagon recommendation to close the storied Walter Reed Army Medical Center, ending a century of care to presidents, soldiers and visiting world leaders.

Pentagon officials said in their final appearance before the commission reviewing their plan to close or scale back military bases that the changes did not overestimate savings and would strengthen national security. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's representatives sought to ease concerns of the nine-member panel days before it votes on a proposal that would affect hundreds of bases. The commission must send the proposal to President Bush in September and to Congress this fall.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission voted Tuesday to add a handful of military facilities in eight states and the nation's capital to the hundreds that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wants to close or shrink. The Navy Broadway Complex in San Diego and the Naval Air Station Brunswick in Maine were added to the list of sites to be closed.

Pentagon officials sought Monday to dissuade a commission from changing any part of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's sweeping proposal to close or downsize military bases. The nine-member panel is considering adding bases to his list of recommended closures and it sought explanations for why the Pentagon decided to leave open some bases, including the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego.

After adding more California military installations to its review list, the federal base-closing commission will travel to San Diego early next month to hold a new round of regional hearings, according to a commission source. The one-day hearing is tentatively scheduled for June 5 and will focus on newly added bases in the southwest part of the country, according to the staff member, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used. Other regional hearings will also be scheduled.

In a show of bipartisan camaraderie, a group of California lawmakers Wednesday unveiled proposals to resuscitate the state's economy in the face of another painful dose of military retrenchment. The recommendations, which range from tax credits to bureaucratic streamlining, were developed by the delegation's defense conversion task force over the last six months and have been sent to Rep.

Citing the strategic and economic importance of the state's military bases, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told a presidential commission Thursday that the Pentagon's proposed base closure list was "good news" because it would have minimal effect on California.

To Glenn Gauvin, it made no sense to close the nation's oldest military shipyard. So Gauvin, 41, joined more than 3,000 other supporters of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Wednesday to press their case before an independent review panel. Many made the 90-minute trip to Boston in a caravan of about 50 school buses. In yellow "Save Our Shipyard" T-shirts, the Portsmouth contingent filled nearly every seat in a cavernous convention center ballroom here.