United States Military Bases California

The three-month base closing battle is over and California lost. All the pleading, all the lobbying, all the cajoling failed to persuade the presidential base closing commission to overturn the Pentagon's plan to cut military facilities in a state that has feasted on the defense budget for decades. The toll statewide is estimated at 41,000 jobs, with Northern California losing between 26,000 and 28,000, as the commission voted to shut five major Bay Area naval facilities.

Defense Secretary Les Aspin this week laid out new ground rules that put San Bernardino back in the running as a site for a major Pentagon finance center at Norton Air Force Base. The finance center would deliver about 4,000 jobs to the economically depressed area.

Say the words base closing and California shudders. The empire of military bases, shipyards, supply depots and hospitals that helped fuel the state's economic boom in the 1970s and '80s is again under attack. A persistent wailing has been heard across the political spectrum, from U.S. senator to mayor, since Defense Secretary Les Aspin released his list of doomed facilities in mid-March. Dire prophecies flowed from the mouths of elected officials.

Loaded down with detailed arguments and glossy photos, an Orange County delegation today officially begins its battle in San Diego to persuade a federal panel that the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station should not be closed. Working in Orange County's favor at the outset is the acknowledgment by members of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission during the first two days of hearings in the Bay Area that some of the Navy Department's recommendations need more study.

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.

After hearing the stunning news a week ago that nine California military bases were on the Pentagon's hit list, leaders of the state's congressional delegation mapped out a simple, direct strategy: Go straight to the top. California legislators bombarded President Clinton and his Cabinet over a four-day period with numerous appeals to consider the state's unemployment woes before creating another economic disaster. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.

The impending round of proposed military base closings looms as the latest dagger threatening California's beleaguered economy, costing billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs when the state is in distress. The news could further erode public confidence about the future and, in particular, hammer communities that have relied on the military for their economic lifeblood.

Reacting to news reports that as many as nine military bases in California may be slated for shutdown, Gov. Pete Wilson on Sunday called the proposed closures an unfair blow to the state's economy and a potential threat to national security. "It is not fair to the working men and women whose livelihoods depend on the continued operations of these installations," Wilson said at a news conference outside the McClellan Air Force Base, one of the bases believed targeted for closure.

Saying that the proposed closing of eight California military bases was "very painful" to him, President Clinton on Saturday promised "special attention" to the state--and especially the San Francisco Bay area--in his defense conversion program.