Commission Votes to Keep Two Bases Open

"Military"

08/26/2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - The base closing commission voted Friday to keep open Air Force bases in South Dakota and New Mexico - rejecting the Pentagon’s plans to close them - as the panel labored toward conclusion of a politically delicate task that has brought alternating sighs of relief and exasperation in communities across America.

Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota would stay as is, but Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico would lose all of its aircraft and still face the possibility of closure in 2010.

The decisions cheered in the bases’ home states were setbacks for Pentagon leaders.

The Ellsworth vote was a blessing for South Dakotans who feared losing some 4,000 jobs and a victory for Sen. John Thune and the state’s other politicians who lobbied vigorously to save the base. Thune, a freshman Republican, unseated then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle partly on the strength of his claim that he would be better positioned to help save the base.


“This fight was not about me,” Thune said just after the vote. “This whole decision was about the merits. It had nothing to do with the politics.”

The panel’s decision on Cannon was a compromise among commissioners who struggled to balance national security interests with fear that closing the base entirely would devastate the economy around tiny Clovis, N.M.

Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., portrayed the outcome as a “partial victory.”

As the commission began debating a huge shakeup of the Air National Guard, a federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that the Pentagon lacks the authority to close a Guard unit in the state without the governor’s approval. The judge declared the Pentagon’s plan “null and void,” but it was not immediately clear how that would effect the commission’s work.

Word of the ruling spread quickly through the hotel conference room where the commission was meeting. Commission Chairman Anthony Principi quickly announced a recess, but resumed work minutes later on the Air Guard proposals.

As they voted this week on the first round of base closings in a decade, commissioners endorsed much of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s plan to streamline the nation’s military bases. But besides Ellsworth and Cannon, they also bucked the Pentagon by voting to keep open two major Navy bases in New England and two Army depots in Texas and Nevada.

Ellsworth, famous for its Cold War-era arsenal of missiles and nuclear bombers aimed toward the Soviet Union, is home to half the nation’s fleet of B1-B bombers and means some 4,000 jobs for the South Dakota plains. The Pentagon had wanted to move all the bombers to their other location, Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.

But the commission found that closing Ellsworth wouldn’t save any money over 20 years, and that it actually would cost nearly $20 million to move the planes to the Texas base. The Pentagon had projected saving $1.8 billion over two decades with the closure.

The base closing panel worried that putting all the B1-B bombers at one base would hurt force readiness. Commissioners noted that Ellsworth, located on the South Dakota prairie, had plenty of “unfettered airspace.”

“We have no savings, we’re essentially moving the airplanes from one very, very good base to another very, very good base, which are essentially equal,” commissioner Harold Gehman said about the proposal.


The decision was a victory for South Dakota politicians who lobbied vigorously to save the base and after the decision praised the panel for acting as an independent check on the Pentagon.

“They made some tough decisions. Today, they listened to the whole story,” Republican Gov. Michael Rounds said.

Added Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D.: “This is a great decision for America’s national security.”

The Ellsworth proposal had caused the most political consternation since Pentagon proposed in May closing or consolidating a record 62 major military bases and 775 smaller installations to save $48.8 billion over 20 years, make the services more efficient and reposition the armed forces.

Some commissioners said the fate of Cannon was the most difficult decision to make yet.


The panel found that closing the base, home to four F-16 fighter squadrons, would put at least a 20 percent dent in the local economy, costing almost 5,000 jobs on the base and in the community near the New Mexico-Texas line.

Several commissioners said those stark numbers had convinced them to keep the base open. Commissioner James Hill worried that the area “does not have economic resiliency.”

Others, including Principi, advocated closure, saying that the Air Force must be able to reshape itself to face future threats.

The compromise keeps the base open, but takes away its aircraft and orders the Pentagon to re-examine the decision to shut it down. By Dec. 31, 2009, the Pentagon must find other missions for the facility or Cannon will close, the panel said.

By Sept. 8, the panel must send its final report to President Bush. The president can accept it, reject it or send it back for revisions. Congress also will have a chance to veto the plan in its entirety but it has not taken that step in four previous rounds of base closings. If ultimately approved, the changes would occur over the next six years.

The Air National Guard plan would shift people, equipment and aircraft around at 54 or more sites where Guard units are stationed. Major Air Guard and Reserve facilities in Alaska, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would close. In some states, aircraft would be taken away from 25 Air Guard units. Those units would get other assignments such as expeditionary combat support roles. They also would retain their missions of aiding governors during statewide emergencies.