Military Bases

In the wake of U.S. bombing of terrorist sites in Afghanistan and Sudan on Thursday, Ventura County's military bases have enacted heightened security measures. Officials at the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Port Hueneme and at the Point Mugu naval base said they were ordered by the chief of naval operations to increase security for an indefinite period.

With the November elections in sight, Congress has again rejected the Defense secretary's pleas for another round of base closures. Budget analysts predict the Defense Department will be forced to "starve" individual bases for lack of funds. Meanwhile, numerous military installations have launched expansion initiatives. Why does the military need more land when it wants to close bases? There is a fundamental problem in the stationing of our military forces.

As military strongholds go, Ft. Klapperkop has little to boast about. It is small and poorly situated and, since its opening 100 years ago today, has been of dubious strategic value. But as powerful symbols go, the brick and brownstone garrison has few rivals in this erstwhile capital of the Transvaal Republic, one of the ill-fated independent states founded in the 1800s by white Afrikaner farmers. Ft.

In these immense caverns 18 stories high and three football fields long, half a century of American naval air power--from the fat sausage blimps of World War II to the heavy helicopters of Vietnam and Desert Storm--awaited the country's call. Now, the two huge hangars at Tustin Marine Corps Air Facility are empty and eerily silent, except for the family of finches warbling way up in the wooden rafters.

In these immense caverns 18-stories high and three football fields long, a half-century of American naval air power--from the fat, sausage blimps of World War II to the heavy helicopters of Vietnam and Desert Storm--awaited the country's call. Now, the two huge hangars at Tustin Marine Corps Air Station are empty and eerily silent, except for the family of finches warbling up in the wooden rafters.

A delegation of women from Okinawa, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, are in Southern California to wage a longshot campaign for the dismantling of 42 U.S. military bases they say have disturbed life on their island for more than half a century. "Fifty-three years is long enough. We have really suffered," said Suzuyo Takazato, a Naha City assemblywoman, who heads the 13-member Okinawa Women's Peace Caravan. "The U.S.

Military identification cards and the equipment used to create them have been stolen from the Army's personnel office at Ft. Meade in Maryland, investigators and military sources said Friday. The equipment could create bogus cards that would be approved by the gatehouses of military bases around the world. In the past, blank ID cards stolen from military bases have been used in rings that cashed stolen checks at military bases.

Opponents of a proposal to turn shuttered Long Beach Naval Station property into a 145-acre cargo terminal for a Chinese shipping line struck a major blow Wednesday on Capitol Hill as a key committee approved a provision to outlaw the project. An amendment added to a routine defense bill by a 29-24 vote of the House National Security Committee would bar cities from selling or leasing any former military installation to any foreign-owned shipping line.

The military vows to thoroughly clean up contaminated soil on the western corner of El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, but a dispute continues over how to reverse ground-water pollution in the same area. Base cleanup is a critical and controversial issue as military officials plan to retire the 4,700-acre military base by mid-1999, possibly to be recycled into a commercial airport. Nearly 75% of the base is already deemed clean.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated throughout Japan against U.S. military bases in Okinawa as the lease on a small patch of base land on the southern island ran out. One protest in Tokyo attracted more than 26,000 people, police said. Opposition to the bases intensified after the rape of a 12-year-old girl in September involving three U.S. servicemen. Okinawans have also been angered by government plans to force landowners to renew leases for base land.